Mark Haddon Quotes

When I land in a country and they ask for 'occupation,' I always just put 'artist.' I think that covers all of it.

As a writer, I've always been somebody who's been productive and hustled hard.

Perhaps it would be better not to be a writer, but if you must, then write.

In 1957, I decided: write or perish.

By the time I was 9, I had the conviction that everybody in the world was an artist except plumbers or people who delivered groceries.

Yes, it's hard to write. But it's harder not to.

I've never really seen too much difference between writing or making visual art or designing furniture or clothing. It's still my brain - I'm just using different parts of it for different things.

I was always working. Maybe you weren't aware of the movies I was making, or the television I was doing, or the shows I was creating, or the books I was writing; there have been thirty. But I have always been solidly at work, running as fast as I can.

Writing is as big a part of my career as acting is, financially and time wise. So, yeah, I love it. That's all I wanted to do since I was young was be a writer. So that and acting are the two most important aspects of my career.

I just love doing different things, which is what being a working author is like.

I am a novelist turned temporary adventurer, and I chose to write television, movies and plays for much the same reason that Henry Morgan selected the Spanish Main for his peculiar - and not dissimilar - sphere of operations.

When I was really young, Dad wasn't that well known. I don't remember when I realised he was a writer, but I do remember him leaving his full-time job at the Central Electrical Generating Board to concentrate on books.

I was writing blogs before work, then I was writing at work, and then I started writing books on the weekend because you just have that sort of energy in your 20s; it's wonderful.

I love being a writer so much that I almost can't believe that I am one.

For most of my life - well, maybe half of my life, but basically until I was in my mid-20s - I wrote stories. From the time I was 5 or 6 until I was 25. And I read a lot of stories during that time.

I don't read my own books, but sometimes if there is a new edition I open it and then I feel this life of a writer was not so hopeless, not so bad.

Acting is just another facet and it will not affect my output as a music director.

I want to be involved in lots of different things. I want to write and direct, and I make music.

In terms of people who want to be writers, I wish more people knew how much work it was.

I don't know if I want to be a writer.

I became a writer out of the desire to express myself.

I wrote a novel, so now they can call me a novelist. I tell stories; that's it.

I feel really lucky that I somehow have blagged my way into loads of different experiences. I find making a film fascinating, I find making a play amazing, and working with my band and scoring things... it's all really cool. I'm just a glutton for experience, really.

What I really care about is writing... Some people feel about touring the way I feel about writing, which is, 'Whoa, I can't believe I get to do this as a job.'

The stuff I'm passionate about is what I write; it isn't multi-million-dollar franchise movies.