Brenda Ueland Quotes

I don't generally listen to music while working, but sometimes music can help me get past minor writer's block.

I try to manage my day by my circadian rhythms because the creativity is such an elusive thing, and I could easily just stomp over it doing my administrative stuff.

I write about two hours a day, and I write in fits and spurts - 45 minutes here, a half-hour there - and when I get stuck, which happens often, I take the dogs for a walk. But during the time when I'm not actually writing, I'm thinking.

Weirdly, often the more I write, the more ideas I have.

I don't believe in writer's block.

A manuscript under way always gave me something to do; only while enduring the aimlessness between books was I truly glum.

I'm not very good at writing songs when I have a lot of clutter in my mind.

There's no writer's block; there's only distraction.

Writer's block is a myth. I never see the gardeners suffering from gardening block.

I never feel so alive as when I'm writing and the work is going well.

If you're going to be a writer, the first essential is just to write. Do not wait for an idea. Start writing something and the ideas will come. You have to turn the faucet on before the water starts to flow.

As soon as coffee is in your stomach, there is a general commotion. Ideas begin to move…similes arise, the paper is covered. Coffee is your ally and writing ceases to be a struggle.

Better to write twaddle, anything, than nothing at all.

The two hardest things about writing are starting and not stopping.

When you get an idea, go and write. Don't waste it in conversation.

Once your mind is caught on the right snag, there's nothing so hard about the mechanics of writing.

We have this idea that we need to be in the mood to write. We don't.

I don't know where my ideas come from, but I know where they come to. They come to my desk, and if I'm not there, they go away again.

I wake up sometimes with an idea and then I write it down. It's not necessarily easy, but when you focus on something it comes.

It takes isolation and solitude for me to write.

I've never had a writer's block, but still I think: 'Is it going to happen this time?' You never know what you're going to get; you just put your fingers on the keys and hope.

I listen to music constantly while writing.

I often find that having an idea in my head prevents me from doing something else. Working is therefore a way of getting rid of an idea.

Writing and cafes are strongly linked in my brain.

I do not believe in inspiration, but I must have a title in order to work, otherwise I am lost.