Nick McDonell Quotes

I had a lot of songs and words and scenes stuck inside of me. So Jacknife encouraged me to bring them all out. So, in essence, 'You and Others' is my diary.

It's how I express myself - through storytelling and characters. They often reveal very intimate, vulnerable sides of myself.

I really don't feel that writing is therapy.

I use my film-making to work through my deep questions and my deep problems. I think I could watch each film and tell you exactly which part of my psyche I'm trying to work out.

When you're writing, I think a big part of writing comes out of an attempt to understand yourself. You're dealing with emotions and thoughts that are native to you. So that probably winds up in your characters.

Writing is a subtle art that is reached mostly by self-discovery and experimentation.

...there are two kinds of writing: the one you write and the one that writes you.

A story is a letter that the author writes to himself, to tell himself things that he would be unable to discover otherwise.

Most things I go through I have to write about.

I went into acting as psychotherapy, and it's still a work in progress.

Nobody can teach what is inside a person; it has to be discovered for oneself and a way must be found to express it.

When I got to write for the 'Battlefield' record, it was almost therapeutic. I had gone through a few things in the two years prior and it was really nice to take those thoughts and emotions and get them out. I definitely want to hone that side of my artistry.

The first audience that you have when writing a book is you.

Writing is a way of getting at the things most people would prefer to escape. Writing takes me to the center of life. That's my invitation to my readers as well.

I guess I could say that I pursue questions that interest me in ways that interest me on the page, but that's awfully vague.

If you really want to know yourself, start by writing a book.

I guess whatever maturity is there may be there because I've been keeping a journal forever. In high school my friends would make fun of me - you're doing your man diary again. So I was always trying to translate experience into words.

When I'm creating a character, I don't see it so much as playing someone else as just playing a specific part of myself under certain circumstances.

I write - though perhaps it sounds pretentious to say so - to make a clearing in the wilderness, to find out what I care about and what exactly to make of it.

There's never been anything I didn't love that I didn't connect with on a personal level because, to some degree, I projected upon it.

Sometimes I journal three pages, sometimes I journal thirty pages, but I'm writing all the time, and whatever's happening is happening in real time for me.

In my book, I was trying to get into my own soul.

Whatever character you play, it gives you the chance to expose another side of yourself that maybe you've never felt comfortable with, or never knew about.

I think a lot of my work has been a weird attempt to liberate myself, but it's not altogether successful.

Over the years, I was never really driven to become a solo artist, but I was curious to find out who I was as an individual creative person. It's taken some time, but now I feel I've truly paid my dues. I guess I'm at a point now where I'm more comfortable in my own skin.