Claire Messud Quotes

It's fun to have someone to talk to and get input from when you write. I usually get stuck when I'm just in my room writing by myself.

For so long, the model for writing has been, you sit in a room alone for a number of days or weeks or months or years and figure it out. But now, you don't have to do that; you don't have to be alone in the room anymore.

I've always loved brainstorming with other writers, and I consider having my work critiqued a part of that brainstorming.

I've never really felt comfortable co-writing. I usually go at my own speed, you know.

Writing with other people is absolutely delightful. It's social, which a writer doesn't usually get to do.

I cannot write in isolation. I write with people around me.

A good writer possesses not only his own spirit but also the spirit of his friends.

Something I've really been wanting to do, ever since 'Six Feet Under' ended, was create my own version of this idealized writer's room as well as the ideal family.

I believe I'm a better writer now than I was when I started. I'm grateful that I had good guidance because you don't make it in this business without good editors and a lot of support from your publishers.

I was not someone who participated in other people's castles.

It's not a problem to be surrounded by other writers if that's the craft that you're doing. I suppose if you get obsessed with the notion of being a writer more than the writing itself, that would be bad. But I live near really smart, thoughtful people who take writing very seriously, and I can meet them for breakfast and talk books.

I started creative writing classes at Aberdeen Central Library, and the writer-in-residence there, Todd McEwen, encouraged me a great deal. He showed my stories to his editor, and I thought that was just what happened to everyone who took his classes!

There may be writing groups where people meet but it's occasional. You really do it all at your own computer or your own typewriter by yourself.

The Longstockings are eight children's and young adult writers. We all came out of the New School MFA program, and we meet regularly to critique each other's work.

I was studying with Peter Carey, Colum McCann; but also, my fellow students were really critical readers for me.

I think the criticism that I take to heart is from other writers that I respect.

I think that, in principle, a workshop is such a beautiful idea - an environment in which writers who are collectively apprenticed to the craft of writing can come together in order to collectively improve.

If you write fiction, you're by yourself. There are certain advantages to that in that you don't have to explain anything to anybody. But when you get in with others who share the loneliness of the whole enterprise, you're not lonely anymore.

I've had trouble with criticism, I guess. It's hard to know what role criticism plays in either encouraging poets or in getting other people to read them.

In the best possible scenario, whenever you get notes from people, they're good notes, and they see things that you wouldn't have seen otherwise, and they make you a better writer.

I had never really co-written. I thought it was weak or something if I needed to collaborate.

I do have the feeling that other writers can't help you with writing. I've gone to writers' conferences and writers' sessions and writers' clinics, and the more I see of them, the more I'm sure it's the wrong direction. It isn't the place where you learn to write.

It's fun when you have a whole team of writers that really like writing for someone; you always end up with some really great lines.

I am writing things on my own, but I really believe co-writing makes you a better writer.

I've never been much for becoming a member of a group.