Colin Wilson 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.

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 was writing blogs before work, then I was writing at work, and then I started writing books on the weekend because you just have that sort of energy in your 20s; it's wonderful.

I'm always writing, always working.

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

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.

When you want to write well, wake up at 5 A.M.

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

Read everything. Write all the time. And if you can do anything else that gives you equal pleasure and allows you to sleep soundly at night, do that instead. The writing life is an odd one, to say the least.

The point always is to be writing something - it leads to more writing.

It wasn't that I couldn't write. I wrote every day. I actually worked really hard at writing. At my desk by 7 A.M., would work a full eight and more. Scribbled at the dinner table, in bed, on the toilet, on the No. 6 train, at Shea Stadium. I did everything I could. But none of it worked.

I remain convinced that the most valuable use of time for a newly published author is to write a second book that's even better than the first, and a third that's better than the second, and on and on.

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.

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've only had four ideas for a novel in my life, and I've written all of them.

I just write from dawn to dusk.

I'm a workmanlike writer. I show up every day and treat it like a job. The old rule that writing is like any other job, the first rule is that you must show up. I'm at the keyboard from 9 to 4 every day.

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

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

I can write a book in probably three months.

I've written since I was 10 years old, so I guess I'm self-taught. I've had some luck along the way, I must admit, and I've worked hard.

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.