Neel Mukherjee Quotes

I was always writing the books that I wanted to write, books that demanded to be written at the time. But, like most writers, you start off feeling your way.

I don't write about anything I don't want to write about. I like to think I could write about anything pretty much that I chose to. I have been asked to write songs about specific things, and I've always been able to come up with the goods.

I feel like writing a book there's always a version in your head that's an amazing version, but then you write the version that you can write.

I don't want to talk too much about the nitty-gritty of writing. It's rather like a pressure cooker with a certain amount of pressure in it - the more you let out, the less you cook.

Any writer worth the name is always getting into one thing or getting out of another thing.

I always write the pieces I want to write.

As a writer, you have to first of all write what you want to. Listen to advice, by all means, but don't get bogged down in it.

I wanted to write.

For a writer, children make life needlessly hard. I've muddled through a lot of things, but I have not muddled through my writing life. I work absolutely flat out, giving it my all.

I'm a writer, and I will write what I want to write.

Going off the road just leaves me more time to be a writer.

In my brief writing life, it means I am still lucky that I have at least one more novel to complete. I do not expect that a story will arrive just because it is time to write another novel. It doesn't happen that way.

I keep telling myself I should try very hard to write a novel of about 210 pages... I don't seem to be capable of it, but I keep hoping it will happen.

Once I have the grain of an idea, it haunts me until I finish the story. I don't like to be haunted, of course, so immediately get to work.

The most difficult novel I have had to write in terms of just getting it done was The Vampire Lestat. It took a year to write.

Writing never comes easy. The difference between Page 2 and Page Nothing is the difference between life and death.

Anything that feels like good characters, I am excited to do whether I write it or not. But if I don't find it in the world, I will write it myself.

I just wrote what I wanted to be reading.

You have to write the book that wants to be written. And if the book will be too difficult for grown-ups, then you write it for children.

They say it is the first step that costs the effort. I do not find it so. I am sure I could write unlimited 'first chapters'. I have indeed written many.

Usually after finishing a novel, I have a head full of bad ideas for the next one.

I think one of the keys to better writing is releasing all of your ideas and to not be afraid. Dream big. This could be the greatest novel in the world you know.

Writing a book is a long and difficult process for me. I'm a slow writer, so I spend the year with Elvis Cole and Joe Pike in my head. I was thinking about this the other day. I wrote the first book in 1987. Literally every day since that time, Elvis and Joe have been in my head. They're always there. I started these guys because I like them.

Mine is not a story to tell struggling writers.

Write a book you'd like to read. If you wouldn't read it, why would anybody else? Don't write for a perceived audience or market. It may well have vanished by the time your book's ready.