Irwin Shaw Quotes

I'm a writer who likes to be influenced.

I've always kind of wrote when I wanted to. Once I get the idea in my head and get it outlined out, I usually just sit and write until it's done.

I have reached the point where I know that as long as I sit down to write, the ideas will come. What they will be, I don't know.

I mean, if you lined up 100 writers, you'd get 100 different ways in which they write. There's no right way or wrong way to do it; it's whatever your process is.

I'm not a believer that you have to write every day. If I felt industrious, I'd spend ten hours a week writing. The writing is going on all the time in my head; the trick is to capture it. Showers are great. Traffic jams are great.

Every writer has to find their own way into writing.

I write - and then I write some more.

Don't force yourself to write. Some people can write a novel in a few months, whereas for others it can take over a year. I'm lucky to be one of the former - but, even so, if I'm not in the mood to write, I won't. I'll go off, do something else and come back to it when I'm ready.

I am always trying to write.

The best way to become a successful writer is to read good writing, remember it, and then forget where you remember it from.

I don't usually think of my writing as a 'challenge' because I enjoy the process so much. I suppose that's what's helped me to avoid 'writer's block' all these years.

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

I don't need music to write, but sometimes I put music on. I don't need special clothes or even my own equipment.

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.

I used to get up and write every day, even if I wasn't working on a specific thing. Now, when I have a thing I'm in the middle of, I do that, but when I'm not, time can go by when I'm not writing at all.

I prefer writing originals.

I don't have traceable literary models because I haven't had great literary influences in my life.

I haven't stuck to any formula. Most great writers stick to the same style, but I wanted to be more various.

For any writers at all, read everything you can and then put your butt in the chair and write. That's all there is to it.

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.

Basically, I just write whatever story grabs me rather than considering the genre.

John McGovern taught me that it's OK to write repeatedly about the same things.

The writing part of my life never changes, because that's just when the inspiration comes.

I love getting up in the morning with nothing else to do except write.

To write, I think one must sit in one place and be bored. Boredom is a very good state for writers to be. Things cook away in your head when you're bored, and suddenly one day, you have a book or a germ of a book.