Cynthia Ozick Quotes

You can't teach somebody how to be a good writer.

I think some aspects of writing can be taught. Obviously, you can't teach vision or talent. But you can help with comfort.

I think writing well takes a little bit of talent and an awful lot of work.

I never think that any writer can teach someone how to write.

Our job, as writers is to do our jobs.

You know, writing is really difficult, and it takes a real patience and a skill. I don't know if I have that. I admire it in others, so much, and I envy it.

There is no motivation higher than being a good writer.

If you have some natural talent and really want to write, you should read the books of someone who's very successful in your genre. You don't want to plagiarize, but you want to learn from that author.

It's very hard to tell somebody how to write when they're so good, and they're a brilliant writer and a really good guy.

If you want to take writing on, you should pay writing the respect it deserves, which is to say, reading it.

I knew I would read all kinds of books and try to get at what it is that makes good writers good. But I made no promises that I would write books a lot of people would like to read.

Good writing of course requires talent, and no one can teach you to have talent.

You cannot teach creativity - how to become a good writer. But you can help a young writer discover within himself what kind of writer he would like to be.

To be a writer, you need to like spending a lot of time by yourself in the company of imaginary people.

It takes a long, long time to write what I do write.

I think writing is such a great talent, and if I was better, I would love to be a writer.

Now I'm not an author, I'm a writer, that's all I am.

I think you can be taught to write. You can't be taught to be a good writer. For that, you have to bring something to it, yourself, something that can't be given to you.

I know that to write you have to have stories you want to tell. You have to keep your mind alive, and you have to work hard.

That's something that is almost accidental at the beginning of a career, but the more you write, the more trained you are to recognize the little signals.

If you're a writer, you're always working.

I spent several years acquiring the obsessive, day-to-day discipline that's needed if you want to write professionally, then several more, highly valuable years studying fiction writing at the University of Iowa.

I'm not sure there are too many people who write what I write.

I never thought I was very good at developing material. I grew up at the BBC where they sent you scripts.

Give me good writing, and I'll play it all day.