Neil Jordan Quotes

Novel writing is solitary work.

Writing a book is an emotional odyssey, sometimes exhilarating, other times deflating.

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

How do we live the writer's life? There's only one simple answer: 'we write.'

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

Writing a book is very personal. It's a very personal relationship. A book will start with something as simple as two men talking about work. That gets the fire going. Sustaining that fire is the hard work. It takes attention and empathy to hone the characters.

I couldn't have been the novelist I was without being the journalist I was.

The only advice I can give to aspiring writers is to write the book that you would want to read, and hope other people agree.

I write every day. I'm always in the process of writing my last book, until the next one.

I love writing books - I really do. If I could just quit everything and work on a book every day, I would love that most.

I write poetry anyway and have for years and years. For me, putting fiction and poetry together is like the best of both worlds.

Writing a book is a long and difficult process for me. I'm a slow writer, so I spend the year with Elvis Cole and Joe Pike in my head. I was thinking about this the other day. I wrote the first book in 1987. Literally every day since that time, Elvis and Joe have been in my head. They're always there. I started these guys because I like them.

Write a book you'd like to read. If you wouldn't read it, why would anybody else? Don't write for a perceived audience or market. It may well have vanished by the time your book's ready.

Somebody said writing is easy, you just sit down at your typewriter and open a vein. It depends on the book. Some, I have to do quite a lot of research, which I like. Others are much closer to me.

Listen, I wrote 10 unsuccessful books before I broke through, so I'm looking all the time to keep my books fascinating. I want to write what people want to read, not push any message.

I'm not sure if I always wanted to be a writer, but I was always writing.

All experience helps when you write.

I was always writing the books that I wanted to write, books that demanded to be written at the time. But, like most writers, you start off feeling your way.

I've been writing for a long time. I sat down to write my first novel in the middle of March of 1982.

The only way to be a novelist, to think that you can create something others will give themselves up to for a dozen hours or more, is to have psychotic self-belief.

Writing is solitary. You spend so much time alone and in your own mind, telling stories.

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 want to write more, because I think I've got a story to tell.

I love to write. It's my first love.

There's actually nothing interesting about me except what I write.