Calvin Trillin Quotes

I find writing very difficult. It's hard and it hurts sometimes, and it's scary because of the fear of failure and the very unpleasant feeling that you may have reached the limit of your abilities.

Let's face it, writing is hell.

Writing has never been that simple for me.

I envy people who write easily. I enjoy the process, but it's not easeful for me.

If there was anything that I learned with my own writing process, maybe there's too many choices what to write about. Just the amount of subject matter in the world these days; maybe that feels chaotic for me.

With writing, I love doing it, but there's that love-hate relationship: You're not having a good run, you've hit a wall; it's frustrating.

I don't think screenwriting is therapeutic. It's actually really, really hard for me. It's not an enjoyable process.

I hated being a novelist when I was 20 - I had nothing to write about.

I huff and puff and struggle with every sentence, paragraph and page - sometimes every word as well.

Writing has been as difficult for me as for people who don't like to write and as little fun.

I find writing really hard, but then, every author I know finds writing really hard work.

I wish I could write easily. I'm one of those guys who's visited by the muse when things are dire.

I hear so many writers say - and these are writers that I trust completely - 'I just started hearing a voice', or, 'The characters came to life'. I am filled with loathing for my own characters when I hear that because they do nothing of the sort. Left to their own devices, they do nothing but drink coffee and complain about their lives.

I'm not a poet. So the writing process is a difficult one for me.

Writing doesn't come easily to me. It gets more and more difficult.

I find writing extraordinarily difficult and not very pleasurable, though I find having done it very pleasurable. I won't lie about that.

I have a problem with beginnings... and endings... and middles. But I don't know what else I would do. I find it very, very difficult to write. It takes everything; it's physically and mentally and emotionally exhausting for me. And my neighbours. And my dog.

A man's got to take a lot of punishment to write a really funny book.

The easiest thing to do on earth is not write.

I could never sit down and write jokes.

There's a danger in romanticizing what it means to be a writer. Because what it really means is hard, hard work. It means tearing your hair out. Feeling like your head is about to explode.

Writing humor is not something every single person can do.

I've tried writing. Two days later I'd go visit it and say, Jesus Christ, who wrote this crap?

There's the occasional script that just hammers you, that you can't shower off.

Every writer I know has trouble writing.