P. D. James Quotes

I've always enjoyed writing, I graduated with a degree in English; I've done bits of journalism.

The training of a journalist, of working with words for thousands of hours, is extraordinarily useful for a fiction writer.

I believe that reading widely is the best preparation for writing.

I was never born to write. I was taught to write. And I am still being taught to write.

Journalism students need to understand it and need a solid background in the liberal arts, in sociology, economics, literature and language, because they won't get it later on.

We live in a moment and a culture when reading is really endangered. There's simply no way to write well, though, if you're not reading well.

I think journalism is useful training for a writer in the way it takes the preciousness out of the pragmatic side of the craft.

I don't understand how you can be a decent writer and not know people.

My family was always playing with words. It is little wonder that even after I got serious about writing, I've had a hard time getting serious about words.

Well, if storytelling is important, then your narrative ability, or your ability to put into words or use what someone else has put into words effectively, is important too.

Sometimes, reading a blog, which I do infrequently, I see that generations of Americans have been wilfully crippled, and can no longer spell or write a sentence.

When you become fluent with language, it means you can write an entry in your journal or tell a joke to someone or write a letter to a friend. And it's similar with new technologies.

When you are young, hone your craft and write shorter pieces instead of novels, because it's really hard to finish a novel.

Poetry taught me a great deal about language and images, but when it came to plotting, I was stumped. It's been very much a learn-by-doing thing for me.

I have been a believer in the magic of language since, at a very early age, I discovered that some words got me into trouble and others got me out.

I still can't spell anything, but I can bust out two-dollar words.

And when you clear away the cobwebs of the description of every job in the world, at the bottom of that job is service. It's service. And I took that ethic and applied it to my writing craft.

I sometimes think it is because they are so bad at expressing themselves verbally that writers take to pen and paper in the first place.

One reason I encourage people to blog is that the act of doing it stretches your available vocabulary and hones a new voice.

I am not in the least eloquent or fluent with languages. My writing on social media is quite pedestrian. But even if it was near any acceptability, I would not be in a position to pen a script or a book.

I can read and write in Hindi.

I've learned to really love revision over the years and worked hard to build up my craft muscle to make my revisions less and less painful with each book.

Fiction writing and journalism, in my experience, are really excellent training grounds for each other.

Part of being a writer is just getting it in your bones, getting the muscle memory down, just doing it.

I enjoy the process of writing.