Harvey Pekar Quotes

I don't work in a straight line. I don't write with an outline. I write where I can see things happen, and then things get glued together.

When I'm writing, I'll just say random stuff that doesn't make sense, and then a certain word that I keep saying will stick out, and I'll write from there.

Just start the sentence...and see what happens. This is how we write.

I end up writing about all kinds of things. I never make an attempt to write about anything in particular. I don't have a little list of topics to write about.

The way that I write novels in particular is I don't usually outline; I just write. Part of the fun is discovering what's happening in the story as I'm going along.

When I sit down to write, I don't have any real goals except to follow one good sentence with another... I'm not the kind of writer who has a map.

I cannot outline. I do not know what the next thing is going to happen in the book until it comes out of my fingers.

I don't card out my screenplays ever. I just have an idea I just sit down and write I don't edit.

When I start to write, I don't have any plan at all. I just wait for the story to come.

I wrote 'Hereafter' quickly and without mapping it out too much or being too schematic. As an exercise, I think that was incredibly important.

I've always thought of myself as an organic writer, rather than a cerebral one. I feel my way along as I go, hoping I'll get to the place I intend to reach.

I am very spontaneous when I write; it kind of just comes out. I never think about what I'm going to write about first... it just sort of comes out like word vomit.

Just write what comes to you.

Blank paper has always inspired me.

You can't sit down and decide what you want to write about.

I write sentence to sentence. That's the kind of writer I am. I don't have a plot when I begin. I have to be convinced and I have to be surprised.

I'm often asked how I write books, but I don't think my approach is suitable for everyone. If I walked into a creative writing class, all I could say to them was 'I tend to make it up as I go along.' I'm not sure that's brilliant advice.

When I'm writing something, I try not to get analytical about it as I'm doing it, as I'm writing it.

I find that it's really important for me to imagine characters and situations. That allows me a lot of freedom.

A lot of my ideas for books come from newspaper articles. But I don't like to be actively looking for ideas.

I'm not like a Sears Catalog of ideas. I don't have that many ideas. I've more or less written them over the years. Usually, I come up with a situation or a character, and it rattles around in my head until the story or the plot emerges.

My own books drive themselves. I know roughly where a book is going to end, but essentially the story develops under my fingers. It's just a matter of joining the dots.

When I sat down and wrote the first paragraph, I was like, 'Oh, I can go with this.' I didn't do an outline. I didn't do anything. I just wrote sentence by sentence, not knowing where the story was going.

The way to compose for me is to have lots of time.

It usually helps me write by reading - somehow the reading gear in your head turns the writing gear.