Mary Doria Russell Quotes

Pay attention to your passions. They are the key to starting and finishing the book you are meant to write. I don't believe in talent. I believe in passion.

Often, I work out of my work. One work takes me to the next thing.

Yes, and I can sit down on a white piece of paper and work because I don't believe too much into inspiration, only I'm waiting for inspiration, work and then inspiration may come. It's a little too easy to say that.

Usually composers need a reason to write. I need a deadline.

I don't believe in inspiration. I write when I can't avoid writing anymore.

If you're waiting for inspiration, you'll wait until you're dead.

I am a person of high energy. That, and I sit down and I write when I get an idea - I put other things aside.

I don't need an alarm clock. My ideas wake me.

The how-to is all about day in, day out finding a way to feed the monster, the drive that lives inside.

I wrote 'Criminal' in 45 minutes when everyone else went to lunch because I had to have a hit. I can force myself to do the work, but only if someone is right up behind me.

I have ideas every day, and if I'm not carrying a pad of paper, I'm typing it into the notes thing on my iPhone, and it's just ridiculous - idle hands are the devil's plaything, and I can't be the devil's plaything. I got to be the devil; I got to be the guy making it all happen.

And once I know what the first page is, then the rest will come.

A journalist also needs to be disciplined, and so do I. I am, essentially, lazy. Without discipline I'd be just a mass of gummy bears on the sofa instead of on book tour with my eighth novel.

If you aren't fired with enthusiasm, you will be fired with enthusiasm.

The great fun in my life has been getting up every morning and rushing to the typewriter because some new idea has hit me.

In 1957, I decided: write or perish.

I'm guessing the stress of having to write for a deadline can be inspiring. Sometimes, pressure is good.

In my early twenties, that's when I really began to write. Before that, I was too busy working, keeping myself going.

I do not believe in inspiration, but I must have a title in order to work, otherwise I am lost.

I try to stay focused on my creativity.

I devote most of my day to writing, and try to turn out at least four pages a day. As for what triggers the creative process, it's a mystery to me! Characters often just walk on the page, and I wait to see what they do and say while I'm writing them.

I think it's really important to keep on staying motivated.

I write a lot more when I'm happy, because you're hopeful, you're motivated.

Negativity is the enemy of creativity.

I have ideas. I hear voices. Words accumulate. It's still an overriding impulse. And I'm self-employed, which means I have to be sensible and motivated about paying the bills.