Elif Safak Quotes

I think writing well takes a little bit of talent and an awful lot of work.

If you wish to be a writer, write.

If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot. There's no way around these two things that I'm aware of, no shortcut.

The main thing about writing is... writing. Sitting your butt down in the chair and doing the work.

You won't make a living writing until you learn to write when you don't want to.

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

And that's what I've learned too: writing is key.

I am always trying to write.

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

The secret to being a writer is that you have to write. It's not enough to think about writing or to study literature or plan a future life as an author. You really have to lock yourself away, alone, and get to work.

Talent is required, but much of writing is a matter of craft, which develops with time, attention, patience and practice, like playing an instrument or learning to dance.

Songwriting is a muscle. The more you do it, the better you get at 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.

As a writer, I've always been somebody who's been productive and hustled hard.

People always ask, 'How do you write so many books?' And I say, I work a lot. I work six or seven days a week.

To be a dramatic writer takes hard work, talent, and discipline. And that's why I just make up crap.

I know that to write you have to have stories you want to tell. You have to keep your mind alive, and you have to work hard.

Being a writer involves writing. You've got to commit to sitting down and writing instead of Xbox or Netflix.

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

There's no reason that a writer, if they have some discipline and curiosities and passion, can't be vital for a long, long time.

I spend 99 percent of my time writing.

I just write from dawn to dusk.

Read a lot. Write a lot. Have fun.

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.

I started writing when I was about 20, 21 maybe.