E. L. Doctorow Quotes

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.

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

Ideas are cheap. I have more ideas now than I could ever write up. To my mind, it's the execution that is all-important.

If you want to be a writer, just write. There's no magic to it.

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.

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.

If you wish to be a writer, write.

You can spend a day in a library and feel: 'Great, I've done a day's work.' But it's only research, not writing.

On a good day I write, all day.

A writer who isn't writing is asking for trouble.

I am always trying to write.

Plans are only good intentions unless they immediately degenerate into hard work.

A writer writes. If you want to be a writer, write.

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

If the desire to write is not accompanied by actual writing, then the desire must be not to write.

A good plan today is better than a perfect plan tomorrow. Don't wait for an inspired ending to come to mind. Work your way to the ending and see what comes up.

The hardest part of doing anything creatively is just getting up and doing.

I write all the time and I try to think of ideas all the time.

I gotta pound the keys for the ideas to flow.

Have more than one idea on the go at any one time. If it's a choice between writing a book and doing nothing I will always choose the latter. It's only if I have an idea for two books that I choose one rather than the other. I ­always have to feel that I'm bunking off from something.

Shut up and write. Don't talk about writing, just physically do it.

In a longish life as a professional writer, I have heard a thousand masterpieces talked out over bars, restaurant tables and love seats. I have never seen one of them in print. Books must be written, not talked.

When the writing is going well, I'm obsessive. I don't shower, I don't take phone calls, I hardly respond to text messages, I don't do email. I take breaks only to read, and usually I read poetry. When it's not going well, I just lie in bed and eat chocolate.

Quantity produces quality. If you only write a few things, you're doomed.

Ideas are the cheapest part of the writing. They are free. The hard part is what you do with ideas you've gathered.