Laura Esquivel Quotes

It is very enjoyable, writing a story. You get this idea. It takes hold of you. And then you spend day and night thinking about how to do it. And then you do it. And much later, you think, 'Oh, yes. That's an interesting question.'

For some reason, all my characters come to me with their names attached to them. I never have to search for the names.

Definitely they write themselves. It's an amazing experience. It's like the characters have come alive and are sitting on my shoulder talking to me, telling me their tales.

Do you love this story? If you love it, then you've got to write it.

For me, it would be pointless to write a novel that I knew I could complete within a specific length of time. I could do that only by repeating something I had done before, and I've never wanted to do that.

I think what happens to young writers is that they use up every life experience that they have had up to that point for their first novel. Then you have to come up with something for the second novel, but you really don't have anything to say.

I was about 28-29 when I wrote my first story, and that was called 'The Garden of Abdul Gasazi.'

'The Chimney Sweeper's Boy' began differently from any previous book I'd written. It actually derives from a story a friend - the novel's dedicatee, Patrick Maher - told me.

I think all writers write from the time they're really young, and you just start asking the question, 'What if?'

Writing 'when you find me,' it really exposed me to a way of putting together a story I hadn't thought of.

It's a trifle hard to surprise yourself with a story you've written.

'Where'd You Go, Bernadette' was surprisingly easy and fun to write because I was feeling such strong emotions.

What surprised me most while writing 'The Monogram Murders' was that everything I needed seemed to arrive in my head exactly when I needed it.

In 25 years of writing novels, I've never had anything that felt like writer's block.

There's a story everywhere. Being bored to death someplace is basically a funny proposition. What you have to watch out for is you don't write a boring story about a boring place.

For years, I sort of would try to write a story that somehow fit the title. And I don't think it happened for maybe another four years that I actually thought of a story, the plot of a story that corresponded to that phrase.

Writing is a lot of fun for me; that's not to say it's easy, but I really do enjoy it.

It's hard to read good fiction when I am writing, because if it is really good I catch myself sort of inadvertently imitating a great writer.

Each book has been different and has been challenging in its own way to write.

There's nothing easy about writing. It's always difficult. It's always a struggle.

What I'm trying to do is to write a story. If you take something from it, that's wonderful; if you don't, that's wonderful as well.

I was swimming in my swimming pool when 'The Secret Lovers' popped entire into my head. I got out, dried off, went upstairs, and finished the book in about 50 days.

For me, it's writing a book and telling people about this story.

Poetry taught me a great deal about language and images, but when it came to plotting, I was stumped. It's been very much a learn-by-doing thing for me.

'The Blade Itself' was my first book. Probably I should've tried a few short stories first, but for some reason I decided to begin with Everest.