Walter Kirn Quotes

I wanted to be a novelist from a very early age - 11 or 12 - but I don't think I ever thought I would write historical fiction. I never thought I might write academic history because I simply wasn't good enough!

I have been aspiring to write some sort of literature for a long time.

It's really hard to be a story writer - no matter how much acclaim you get - and not write a novel.

When I went to college I took a creative writing class and decided in a week to be a writer.

Every 'Observer' writer wants to be a novelist.

If I really considered myself a writer, I wouldn't be writing screenplays. I'd be writing novels.

Once I finished 'Eileen,' I wanted to write more novels. I don't see myself stopping any time soon.

I was writing from the time I was 12 years old, but I originally wanted to be a novelist.

As a young, ambitious novelist, writing for kids never crossed my mind.

I wanted to be a novelist for so long.

I was 17 when I decided to write stories as big as cathedrals, overflowing with the kind of memorable and audacious characters Walker Percy, Ernest Hemingway and Saul Bellow created.

I wanted to be an author for as long as I can remember.

I don't think there was a time I ever thought of myself as anything but a writer. I thought I was going to be the next Toni Morrison.

My whole life, I've wanted to be a novelist.

I was always obsessed with being a writer of some sort.

I started out as a novelist and wrote several novels before deciding to publish one, and I fully intend to go back to the form.

I knew that I wanted to be a writer even before I knew exactly what being a writer entailed.

If I did anything 'next', I would do writing.

When I was young, I wrote everything, and I thought I would be an all around writer, that I would write everything.

I want a career writing these novels that I can be proud of. And then I want one as a screenwriter.

I'd always wanted to write books ever since I was a kid.

I hope to build a reputation as a science-fiction writer. That's the pitch. We'll see.

Don't let anyone discourage you from writing. If you become a professional writer, there are plenty of editors, reviewers, critics, and book buyers to do that.

Many fiction writers write for the critics or for themselves; they forget the common reader. I never do. I don't think journalism clashes with my fiction; on the contrary, it helps enormously.

I love to write. I write everything across the board - kids' stories and novels and scripts. I actually would like to give that a go; I'd like to try to be a writer.