Elizabeth Berg Quotes

Each book first begins with a little idea.

Blank paper has always inspired me.

I've been writing for as long as I can remember, and reading even before that. My mom still has stories that I wrote when I was in kindergarten. I was a reader and a re-reader. That's the main reason I became a writer.

The idea led me into the research, which continues to give me more ideas for the story.

Normally book ideas come to me in a moment.

Literature has always been the greatest fuel for my imagination.

The thing that inspires me most is reading and just observing the people around me. I think those are the two things that make me want to write.

Read a lot. Write a lot. Have fun.

Sometimes I'll have an idea for a story or have a subject, and that will inspire lyrics, but most of the time, hopefully, they already exist somewhere else.

I tell my writing students that everything is material; just pay attention.

I think writers are observers and watchers. We always have our ears open and eyes open, so I might see something in everyday life that inspires me. And I think that's probably more than anything else. Everyday life is where I get my inspiration.

There is a plethora of topics to explore. I sometimes think I may never live long enough to explore all of the unique story lines I have either in my head or waiting in my computer file.

You can draw inspiration from anything. If you're a good storyteller, you can take a dirty look somebody gives you, or if a guy you used to have flirtations with starts dating a new girl, or somebody you're casually talking to says something that makes you so mad - you can create an entire scenario around that.

I do see myself as someone who has a lot of story ideas.

I don't actually have a one wellspring of inspiration. Though I'm most often inspired while reading - both fiction and nonfiction.

I think that writers of literary fiction would do well to read more books for children.

My books start almost before I realise it. Once in a while, some accident causes an idea to rise to the surface and say: 'now.'

I tend to have an endless number of ideas for writing projects. I don't necessarily say that as a good thing. Maybe it's a good thing, but I have ideas for all kinds of projects: contemporary novels, graphic novels, anything that happens to go through my mind.

I actually feel that the different kinds of stories come out of different parts of my brain.

I have an ideas book at home with far more ideas than I will ever be able to write.

Sometimes I think that novelists suffer from P.C.S.: Perpetual Childhood Syndrome.

Well, you know, writers just suck up new experiences - we're just like the vacuum cleaners of newness.

When I read good stories, I want to write good stories too.

As long as there are things to wonder about, there are stories to be written about them. That makes me happy, because writing about things seems to be my thing.

I spend a lot of time writing. I get inspiration from texts rather than images.