Anne Enright Quotes

There’s nothing more humbling than seeing your best quotes in a list, and thinking they could have been written by a coma patient with a keyboard and spasms.

Only bad writers think they're good.

Never believe anything you think about yourself as a writer when you're not writing.

I think what's really hard is making sense and making what you write clear and smooth-flowing.

Good writers hate bad writing but hating bad writing doesn’t make you good. Writing badly does.

I dress up with a conscience when I think you'll be watching. I say all the right things, I don't know what I mean.

If a man means his writing seriously, he must mean to write well. But how can he write well until he learns to see what he has written badly. His progress toward good writing and his recognition of bad writing are bound to unfold at something like the same rate.

I hope I can improve. I'm far from perfect. Sometimes, I wonder what would happen if I fought myself. I think it would be a one-round KO. But if I was fighting myself, I know I could take my best punch. No, make that two rounds. I would knock myself out in two rounds.

I'm convinced that FEAR is at the root, of all bad writing

I refuse to be misled by any kind of a mirage about any alleged success of what I write. Those things are too easily exaggerated, and even when they are true, they always mean less than they seem to.

I think sometimes the hardest obstacle is yourself. I can certainly be my own worst critic and oftentimes forget to enjoy the here and now. Physically, the hardest obstacle I have overcome was severe back issues. [This] resulted in finally getting surgery to replace four discs, which changed my life back to active - which is how I am happiest.

You can write about anything, and if you write well enough, even the reader with no intrinsic interest in the subject will become involved.

I would prefer you not to say, "That was the most terribly written piece I've ever read." That would hurt me. But you don't think I'm the best person in the world? Well, alright.

The critics suppose that it is easy to write a play. They aren't aware that writing a good play is difficult and writing a bad one is twice as hard.

When they say I'm a great actor, I close my ears because it's not good for you to think that way.

Somehow, some way, incredibly enough, good writing ultimately gets recognized. If you're a really good writer and deserve that honored position, then by God, you'll write, and you'll be read.

I don't think all of my ideas are good. It's almost easier when people are critical of you because it helps with the quality control.

I am jealous of those who think more deeply, who write better, who draw better, who ski better, who look better, who live better, who love better than I.

The secret of all good writing is sound judgment.

Read widely and with discrimination. Bad writing is contagious.

I hate those people that get up and they're amazing. I think you just have to be kind of wasted to go and do it.

It's not terrible, people telling you you're great; what's terrible is when you start believing it.

When you present something that you have worked on to somebody else, for some reason that is the moment when you can see everything that you have done wrong. They may or may not agree, but it is more of a personal thing for me. It is that I am looking at it because you are self conscious and suddenly there is someone in the room that is seeing it for the first time.

And my fear of failure has been lifelong and deep. If you are what you do- and I think my parents may have accidentally given me this idea- and you do poorly, what then? It’s over; you’re wiped out. All those prophecies you heard in the dark have come true, and people can see the real you, see what a schmendrick you are, what a fraud.

I always think that I’m still this 13-year old boy that doesn’t really know how to be an adult, pretending to live my life, taking notes for when I’ll really have to do it.