Celeste Ng Quotes

You always hope you'll surprise somebody with the work. If you write something human and appealing, the perfect reader could be anyone.

I write what I'd like to read and just hope that, along the way, others might like to read them, too.

I really write for people.

I write what I'd like to read and just hope that, along the way, others might like to read them, too.

No writer … has any life in the absence of people who need what he writes

As writers, we can't predict who might come along who might find our offerings valuable.

What excites me, what attracts me, what gets me up in the morning is telling the next story and getting it out in front of readers and hoping they'll love it too.

The job of the writer is to look at where he is now and make some sort of emotional sense of it, not only for that moment but for years to come.

To be a writer, you need to like spending a lot of time by yourself in the company of imaginary people.

The first book you write because of the way it makes you feel. The second one you can't help but wonder how it's going to make the reader feel.

I'd love to maybe try writing. I don't know if I'd publish anything, but as a hobby, it's really nice. I bought a typewriter, and I really like to write on the typewriter sometimes. It's a fun little hobby.

I am, really, a great writer; my only difficulty is in finding great readers.

After a while, you start to realize that you should write a book you would want to read. I try to write a book I would enjoy.

As far as I'm concerned, I'm a writer who's writing books, and therefore, I don't want to die. You'd miss the end of the book wouldn't you? You can't die with an unfinished book.

I've been writing stories since I was 12. 'Writer's Digest' was one of my writing teachers, actually.

I enjoy talking to groups who are interested in the writing process or the industry. I never teach - because truthfully, I don't know how it all works; it just does. Sort of magic-like. But I love to share my experiences and perspectives.

It's the same thing in a way, although writing a book is a very solitary thing.

I think all writers are mainly writing for themselves because I believe that most writers are writing based on a need to write. But at the same time, I feel that writers are, of course, writing for their readers, too.

Novel writing is solitary work.

An author is somebody who writes a story. It doesn't matter if you're a kid or if you're a grown-up, it doesn't matter if the book gets published and lots of people get to read it, or if you make just one copy and you share that book with one friend.

If you give me a typewriter and I'm having a good day, I can write a scene that will astonish its readers. That will perhaps make them laugh, perhaps make them cry - that will have some emotional clout to it. It doesn't cost much to do that.

You write, hoping to write a good book; that's it.

I'm a writer and this is what I love to do.

Screenplays I didn't really care about, journalism, travel books, getting my writer friends to write about their dreams or something. I just determined to write the books I had to write.

If somebody gave you several thousand dollars and nothin' to do but write, would you be a writer then? Would you tell your stories, your family's stories, then?