Patrick deWitt Quotes

Like all writers, I draw from life as I know it; but it's a refracted kind of reality, and none of it is factually true.

For me, literature is a complex game, both mental and concrete, which is acted out in a physical manner on the page.

Basically, I just write whatever story grabs me rather than considering the genre.

My secrets must be poetic to be believable.

Once they're on paper, they're gone. I like to do as much with the words, as far as image goes.

I'm not a teacher; I'm not a historian. I'm trying to create a world for my characters.

In school, my favourite class was when we were given a subject for an essay on which we could freewheel. And poetry: I've always written it and loved the way words interact, in meaning and in sound.

People think you have to go through something to write about it, and you absolutely do not. You can write about, like, a shoe. It's a story.

I got into writing because books and stories were always a big part of my life. I loved listening to them and then reading them, and I loved making them up.

I've always loved writing, and the impulse for me is storytelling. I don't sit down and think: 'What political message can I sell?' I love the creativity of it.

When I write, it's like watching a movie in my head.

I was 12. Our, teacher made us write an autobiography and I realised that I wasn't very interesting. I began to make things up, and that's when I thought maybe I was a writer, or at least a fiction writer.

I love stories. I just enjoy telling stories and watching what these characters do - although writing continues to be just as hard as it always was.

Writing is writing to me. I'm incapable of saying no to any writing job, so I've done everything - historical fiction, myths, fairy tales, anything that anybody expresses any interest in me writing, I'll write. It's the same reason I used to read as a child: I like going somewhere else and being someone else.

The opportunity to be a storyteller is the greatest thing in the world, and I feel so lucky and really love it.

It's all about letting the story take over.

I sort of like writing about weird characters, I guess.

At a certain moment, I decided to write a story. I had no more small children to tell them stories.

I simply love writing good stories, that's my passion.

I just knew there were stories I wanted to tell.

Homer has taught all other poets the art of telling lies skillfully.

When I'm writing, I'm creating the story and its character with words. I'm thinking about what the pictures will be like, but I never begin to sketch. The pictures are all in my head.

I wrote out little mysteries in longhand, and my mother typed them out on an old Remington.

I don't really set out to explore grand themes. I set out to tell a story. And one I have to be able to imagine right through.

I started writing, or rather, thinking, stories as a child, and at that time the reason was very clear.