Paulo Coelho Quotes

I don't think it is possible to give tips for finding one's voice; it's one of those things for which there aren't really any tricks or shortcuts, or even any advice that necessarily translates from writer to writer. All I can tell you is to write as much as possible.

I'm learning more about life when I'm playing too, and writing music. I'm learning more about life, the connection.

As a young kid I assumed that everybody was sort of on the same wavelength as I was and then I found out in a lot of small ways that that wasn't the case. It's sort of a mixed blessing. My mind is like a puppy. It goes all over. I guess writing fiction was a way of harnessing that. I could hook a puppy up to a treadmill and get something out of it.

I stay away from the writing part because I think that if it sticks, it sticks. You just know it. The stuff that doesn't stick, goes away. The stuff that propels you forward, you can see it in your partner's eyes.

That's what's great about the arts. Everything inspires you, and you get a chance to grow from watching other people and how they do their work.

Life: my favorite occupation.

But find something that you absolutely love doing. And then get to love the way you do it. That's the uniqueness of all of us. That's it.

My identity started developing through the songs I was writing.

I've enjoyed the process of understanding who I am through my work and who I am in relation to others: the intense collaboration that acting requires and thrives in.

The words come from here. From memories, from dreams, from people I've known. I'm always writing and reflecting on life. I want to suck it all in.

I'm a bit of a strange human being - I love to work. I love art. I love self-expression.

Writing of every kind is a way to wake oneself up and keep as alive as when one has just fallen in love.

I came to writing kind of late. I was an engineer, and the one thing I've learned is that you have to steer a project in the direction of the maximum fun for you. You could say lively energy, or you have to try to be intrigued. Basically, if you were a musician and you were playing joylessly, nobody would want to hear you.

How much more interesting life would be if only more people had the courage and skill to act themselves, instead of abjectly understudying some one else!

The great thing about writing: Stay with it ... ultimately you teach yourself something very important about yourself.

We are living in a world where the individual must learn to command the raw materials of expression. He must not be dependent all the time on the ready-made, the finished product. It's the transferring, the changing of the raw into what is the expression of your own self – the whole joy and satisfaction and frustration of life is built into this.

Nobody will stop you from creating. Do it tonight. Do it tomorrow. That is the way to make your soul grow - whether there is a market for it or not! The kick of creation is the act of creating, not anything that happens afterward. I would tell all of you watching this screen: Before you go to bed, write a four line poem. Make it as good as you can. Don't show it to anybody. Put it where nobody will find it. And you will discover that you have your reward.

Painters get up and paint. Writers get up and write. I like to get up and act. It's not a big deal. It makes me happy.

Everything I know about life I learned from the daily practice of sitting down to write.

If you're going to write, write one poem all your life, let nobody read it, and then burn it. This is very young thinking, I confess, but it is the seminal part of my life.

Pay attention to your passions. They are the key to starting and finishing the book you are meant to write. I don't believe in talent. I believe in passion.

Writing is extremely personal, and that's the joy of it for me.

I had to introduce a lot of people into my writing environment which I thought at first I would find really difficult, but I actually found that I loved it. It meant that I was meeting different people; it meant that I was expressing myself in different ways.

I have never written a book that didn't teach me far more than it taught my reader.