Sheri S. Tepper Quotes

I don't think there's a shortage of material in the world. Or in my head. I just pray for continued good health, because I've got other stories to tell.

So, how to stay inside the world of entertainment without actually getting another job? I felt the only logical answer was to become a novelist. So I wrote the first book - driven by some very real feelings of desperation - and it worked.

I am always trying to write.

One of the disconcerting things about writing for publication is that you're trying to clear your little parcel of land in a field where Taste is king - and, as we all know, there's no accounting for Taste.

I write every day.

It is actually a lot harder to sit down and write from A to Z. But for me at least, it's the only way I can do it, at this point, with any moderate success.

When I read it, I don't wince, which is all I ever ask for a book I write.

If I waited for perfection... I would never write a word.

When I wrote my novel, 'The Ministry of Special Cases,' I couldn't even brush my teeth. I had to write in isolation from everything else. I thought a play would take away from my fiction, but the more projects I work on, the more time I have.

I would say, number one, don't worry about getting published. Just write. Number two, just write. Three is make sure you read.

When I was 19, I wrote a novel, which was not very good, but I finished it.

I write all the time and I try to think of ideas all the time.

You might not write well every day, but you can always edit a bad page. You can't edit a blank page.

I found some time ago that I have to be careful, while working on a novel, what I read.

I have to make myself write, sometimes. In the space between poems, you somehow forget how to do it, where to begin. It was good to be task - based for a while. I just came downstairs each day, picked the one I was going to do that day, and wrote.

I've never had a writer's block, but still I think: 'Is it going to happen this time?' You never know what you're going to get; you just put your fingers on the keys and hope.

I have met so many people who say they've got a book in them, but they've never written a word. To be a writer - this may seem trite, I realize - you have to actually write.

I used to get up and write every day, even if I wasn't working on a specific thing. Now, when I have a thing I'm in the middle of, I do that, but when I'm not, time can go by when I'm not writing at all.

I tend to write things and don't go the next step and try to get it published. I don't want to do book signings and stuff.

I started out as a novelist and wrote several novels before deciding to publish one, and I fully intend to go back to the form.

The main thing about writing is... writing. Sitting your butt down in the chair and doing the work.

People always ask, 'How do you write so many books?' And I say, I work a lot. I work six or seven days a week.

For any writers at all, read everything you can and then put your butt in the chair and write. That's all there is to it.

Write every day, just to keep in the habit, and remember that whatever you have written is neither as good nor as bad as you think it is. Just keep going, and tell yourself that you will fix it later.

It's my job to write the best book I can each month and hand my scripts in. Everything else is beyond my control.