Anthony Doerr Quotes

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.

When I'm working on a novel, I work 70-hour weeks.

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

I like writing. I get cranky when I can't. Yes, I write books back to back, and I work very hard on them.

I wrote 'Sophie's World' in three months, but I was only writing and sleeping. I work for 14 hours a day when I'm working on a book.

The secret to being a writer is that you have to write. It's not enough to think about writing or to study literature or plan a future life as an author. You really have to lock yourself away, alone, and get to work.

I just write from dawn to dusk.

Not intending to be funny: I sit at the keyboard, put my fingers on the keys and go. To me, it's the real secret of writing. Put yourself in front of the screen or the blank sheet of paper and get to work.

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

I am a working person. I always work, study or do research for my novel. I even work on Sunday.

You won't make a living writing until you learn to write when you don't want to.

I write in the afternoon, from about 12 until 6 or 7. I use an upstairs room as my office. Once I get going I keep at it, and it usually takes about six months from the first blank screen until 'The End.'

But the ultimate lesson is just sit down and write. That's all.

The writing day can be, in some ways, too short, but it's actually a long series of hours, for months at a time, and there is a stillness there.

When I am occupied with a work that requires continuity - a novel, for example - I write every day.

Being a writer involves writing. You've got to commit to sitting down and writing instead of Xbox or Netflix.

You don't turn out as many books as I did then by sitting around, being cozy with the family.

I'm not the most talented writer in the world. I know that. But I also know that I'm disciplined, that I work my butt off, and that I make myself write as much as I can. Writer's block is a luxury I can't afford. I'm a professional writer, which means that I put my butt in the chair each day, and I write. Simple as that.

So I thought I should write five pages a day. And that's what I did. Eventually I had a book.

I'm always writing, always working.

Take the time to write. You can do your life's work in half an hour a day.

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.

It has taken me years of struggle, hard work and research to learn to make one simple gesture, and I know enough about the art of writing to realize that it would take as many years of concentrated effort to write one simple, beautiful sentence.

I write books back to back, and I work very hard on them.

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.