Otis Blackwell Quotes

A good writer possesses not only his own spirit but also the spirit of his friends.

Somebody said writing is easy, you just sit down at your typewriter and open a vein. It depends on the book. Some, I have to do quite a lot of research, which I like. Others are much closer to me.

Writing is no trouble: you just jot down ideas as they occur to you. The jotting is simplicity itself - it is the occurring which is difficult.

I'm not a born writer, and I don't enjoy writing.

I just finished a novel, and I'm back kind of noodling on the screenplays. Screenplays are tough. I am making music, I'm just not sure what kind of music it is or where it's going.

It is comparatively easy to become a writer; staying a writer, resisting formulaic work, generating one's own creativity - that's a much tougher matter.

The easiest thing to do on earth is not write.

I find that screenwriting is at best kind of a hackwork in some ways.

I'm such a coward that unless I get a good writer, I don't want to make a picture.

I'm an author who likes assignments, who needs suggestions, ideas I would never have thought of otherwise - then something happens inside my alien head. Other people have to decide whether or not I'm a good writer, but I do have the ability to write in different styles.

The problem with books, now that I've written one, is that the idea of adaptation is so much easier than sitting down to write something new.

In effect I am not a novelist, but rather a failed essayist who started to write novels because he didn't know how to write essays.

Sometimes in writing you have difficult periods and then other times it just flows.

I don't usually think of my writing as a 'challenge' because I enjoy the process so much. I suppose that's what's helped me to avoid 'writer's block' all these years.

I work with writers whom I believe to be true storytellers. And because I'm a writer, I pay very keen attention to their vision. I find that so fueling creatively because, in telling those stories, you use everything you've got. You come away with battle scars. It's gratifying and invigorating.

It was my great problem to solve: how to write a book, you know. And after you write one, you have to write another to prove to yourself you can do it again.

In a way, I started 'Goon Squad' not even realizing I was writing a book. I thought I was just writing a few stories to stall before starting this other book that I wanted to write - or thought I wanted to write: I still haven't written it.

Writing is nagging, fascinating, troublesome and exciting.

Other writers know what you're going through, what you're talking about when you write.

It's fun to have someone to talk to and get input from when you write. I usually get stuck when I'm just in my room writing by myself.

I don't try to be satirical. I just try to get what's in my head on the page. And that part is hard for me to do. It takes a long, long time to make it poetic, somewhat essayistic.

With the novels, I try to write a few pages a day - it doesn't sound much, but it can be difficult if I'm not sure where the story is going.

You can't sit down and decide what you want to write about.

The writer can choose what he writes about but he cannot choose what he is able to make live.

To some extent, all authors are a little schizophrenic. We lead most of our lives in solitary confinement, living and breathing the books that we're writing.