J. Michael Straczynski Quotes

During the day, if I don't have any other commitments, I'm usually at my desk writing, revising, or researching anywhere from four to six hours.

There are many challenges I face while working on a book. Working within deadlines and schedules is certainly one of the bigger ones for me. I want to create the best possible book I can for my readers with words and pictures - and that takes time to get it just right.

If you get a sense that your writing isn't quite working, change it. Or cut it out. Don't just tell yourself it'll do, because it won't.

I don't really revise. I tend to rewrite.

I write slowly. I actually write quickly, but I throw out so much material.

When it comes to lyrics, I just write down a lot of things, and only a very tiny fraction of it, I think, is any good.

I once read Updike after writing a first draft, and I wanted to put my own book on the fire. I've since learned to read utter crap while I'm writing: pulp is the thing.

Particularly in the final stages I always find that I'm rushed. It's dangerous when you're rushed in the editing stage, most of my early films are flawed in the cutting.

I've written 16 children's books and five unpublished novels. Some of the latter were breathtakingly bad.

I read what I write over and over and make corrections and improvements, until I reach the conclusion that the material deserves to stand on its own.

Writing anything as an expert is really poisonous to the writing process, because you lose the quality of discovery.

You know how some people write every day at a certain point? I'm not like that. I carry something around for a long time. I weigh the words and the sentences. I weigh the paragraphs. The process is much more meditative for me.

When I write a book, I'm making it the best book I can.

It may be important to write a book that doesn't come up to what I would like to have rather than to write no book at all.

When I read it, I don't wince, which is all I ever ask for a book I write.

A man can make himself put down what comes, even if it seems nauseating nonsense; tomorrow some of it may not seem wholly nonsense at all.

When you're stuck, and sure you've written absolutely garbage, force yourself to finish and then decide to fix or scrap it - or you will never know if you can.

I write when the urge hits me, getting the words down as fast as I can type and then I step back from what I just wrote and start a dialectical process where I begin challenging my own writing.

I can work on a verse for a very long time before realising it's not any good and then, and only then, can I discard it.

I know that one of the great arts that the writer develops is the art of saying, 'No. No, I'm finished. Bye.' And leaving it alone. I will not write it into the ground. I will not write the life out of it. I won't do that.

I think, as a writer, you spend most of your time working on the book alone.

Writing for late night is really good for learning how to write when you don't want to write. You have to produce every day. It's also very good for refining the difference between your point of view and the host's.

Many times I have written something, and after it was published, I understood what I was saying.

All writers are forced to live within deadlines, and deadlines determine how good they can be.

Sometimes there were certain things in 'Limmy's Show' where I'd be having to come up with six episodes and as a result there was stuff in there that wasn't my favourite and I'd think, 'ach I'll shove that in this episode.'