Nick Flynn Quotes

The main thing about writing is... writing. Sitting your butt down in the chair and doing the work.

You don't turn out as many books as I did then by sitting around, being cozy with the family.

If you love something - and there are things that I love - you do want more and more and more of it, but that's not the way to produce good work. So as an author, I need to write what I need to write.

Being a writer involves writing. You've got to commit to sitting down and writing instead of Xbox or Netflix.

I write all the time, whether I feel like it or not. I never get inspired unless I'm already writing.

People always ask, 'How do you write so many books?' And I say, I work a lot. I work six or seven days a week.

But the ultimate lesson is just sit down and write. That's all.

I've lost track of the number of people who want to be writers but never actually write anything. Talking about writing, dreaming about writing, can be very fun, but it won't get a book written. You've got to write.

The secret to being a writer is that you have to write. It's not enough to think about writing or to study literature or plan a future life as an author. You really have to lock yourself away, alone, and get to work.

You have to write every day, and you have to write whether you feel like it or not.

I just write from dawn to dusk.

To say, "Well, I write when I really get into it" is a bunch of bull. Put the paper in the typewriter, stare at it a long time, get snowblindness if you have to, but write something.

Write even when the world is chaotic. You don’t need a cigarette, silence, music, a comfortable chair, or inner peace to write. You just need ten minutes and a writing implement.

Take the time to write. You can do your life's work in half an hour a day.

I have met so many people who say they've got a book in them, but they've never written a word. To be a writer - this may seem trite, I realize - you have to actually write.

I used to get up and write every day, even if I wasn't working on a specific thing. Now, when I have a thing I'm in the middle of, I do that, but when I'm not, time can go by when I'm not writing at all.

As a writer, I've always been somebody who's been productive and hustled hard.

I have nothing like a writing routine. I sometimes have trouble buckling down to write at home.

A journalist also needs to be disciplined, and so do I. I am, essentially, lazy. Without discipline I'd be just a mass of gummy bears on the sofa instead of on book tour with my eighth novel.

You won't make a living writing until you learn to write when you don't want to.

For any writers at all, read everything you can and then put your butt in the chair and write. That's all there is to it.

I make time to write.

I write every day. Most weekdays, I write about ten hours a day. That doesn't mean eight hours of surfing the Net or watching videos on YouTube. I park my butt in a chair and write... I learned that writer's block is a myth created by people who don't have, or understand, a writing process.

The hard part of writing at all is sitting your ass down in a chair and writing it. There's always something better to do, like I've got an interview, sharpening the pencils, trimming the roses. There's always something better to do. Going to a writer's club?

If you wish to be a writer, write.