John Fowles Quotes

A writer is rarely so well inspired as when he talks about himself.

How truly does this journal contain my real and undisguised thoughts--I always write it according to the humour I am in, and if astranger was to think it worth reading, how capricious--insolent & whimsical I must appear!--one moment flighty and half mad,--the next sad and melancholy. No matter! Its truth and simplicity are its sole recommendations.

I do not just write, I write what I am. If there is a secret, perhaps that is it.

Writing on 'Love' is so steeped in self-analysis. The writer's room can feel like therapy.

These pages are not my confession; they’re my definition. And I feel, as I begin to write it, that I can write it with some semblance of truth.

I've heard Stephen King say that when you write a novel you end up revealing everything about yourself.

I was already in a groove and decided to initially write down everything, as I would in an actual diary, and then go back and take out what I was too shy to reveal. But I wound up leaving more in than I imagined, and that was because I wanted to be transparent and real.

I sit in my new room and write everything down. My heart never stops talking.

'M Train' is as close to knowing what I'm like as anything. I don't know exactly what the book is about. All and nothing, I suppose.

If you go back to all my albums, they're all confessional.

If you write something that's personal, there's going to be elements of yourself in it.

Anyone who wants to know who I am can just read my lyrics - I've always written about who I am.

I've always written about things that cause me to feel something.

You just have to tell your authentic stories, and hopefully, it resonates. Whatever your story is, you just have to tell it authentically.

Writing is about bringing something from inside you that you're trying to say, and not just trying to say something to please someone else.

A lot of my songs are about things that concern me personally, not a heightened version of myself or any of the characters that I play.

I'm writing out of desperation. I felt compelled to write to make sense of it to myself - so I don't end up saying peculiar things like 'I'm black and I'm proud.' I write so I don't end up as a set of slogans and clichés.

What’s writing really about? It’s about trying to take fuller possession of the reality of your life.

Look, then, into thine heart, and write!

I wasn't quite used to writing a diary - I didn't understand why people did it - but I wrote down notes and they went into a poem.

Although human beings are incapable of talking about themselves with total honesty, it is much harder to avoid the truth while pretending to be other people. They often reveal much about themselves in a very straightforward way. I am certain that I did. There is nothing that says more about its creator than the work itself.

We write to expose the unexposed. Most human beings are dedicated to keeping that one door shut. But the writer's job is to see what's behind it, to see the bleak unspeakable stuff, and to turn the unspeakable into words - not just into any words but if we can, into rhythm and blues. You can't do this without discovering your own true voice, and you can't find your true voice and peer behind the door and report honestly and clearly to us if your parents are reading over your shoulder.

Let me tell you a secret: there is no such thing as an uninteresting life One day you must tell me your full and complete story, unabridged and unexpurgated.We will set aside some time for it, and meet. It's very important. Maneck smiled. 'Why is it important?' It's extremely important because it helps to remind yourself of who you are. Then you can go forward, without fear of losing yourself in this ever-changing world.

If you are disappearing from yourself, but you're still writing, then there is a kind of activity of thinking going on, which in my world is similar to what's going on in music.