Paul Reiser Quotes

The act of writing is the act of discovering what you believe.

I'm uncomfortable trying to rush change of perception, except to the extent that I'm going to write a book.

No two books come out the same way. Some I write by the seat of my pants; others are planned in minute detail.

I think you could say every pastor is writing this book [ Max on Life]; for many it just never gets published.

I love writing. I've always written journals. I loved writing the book on living alone.

I've lost my writing skills since college. I couldn't write a book. It would take a long time.

I try to create new characters in each book I write. That's what makes writing fun and interesting for me.

I write to discover what I know.

A friend of mine who writes history books said to me that he thought that the two creatures most to be pitied were the spider and the novelist - their lives hanging by a thread spun out of their own guts. But in some ways I think writers of fiction are the creatures most to be envied, because who else besides the spider is allowed to take that fragile thread and weave it into a pattern? What a gift of grace to be able to take the chaos from within and from it to create some semblance of order.

Writing books isn't a drastic departure from writing for the stage.

Following takes why. Transactions take what. It has to be real. It has to be the same for writing a book.

When someone writes a book review, they obviously already self-identify as a writer. I mean, they are. They're writers, they're critics, and they're writing about a book about a writer who's a critic. So I think it's really hard for people to distance themselves from what they're criticizing.

When I'm writing a book, I draw from my immediate experience, and my books are therefore almost a snapshot of where I am at that moment in my life.

I think the book you always like best is the one you're about to write.

A book, at the same time, also has to do with what I call a buzz in the head. It's a certain kind of music that I start hearing. It's the music of the language, but it's also the music of the story. I have to live with that music for a while before I can put any words on the page. I think that's because I have to get my body as much as my mind accustomed to the music of writing that particular book. It really is a mysterious feeling.

When we write we begin to taste the texture of our own mind

The way I feel about every book is this: you don't finish it, you abandon it. All of my books have in some sense failed, otherwise I wouldn't write another one. If I wrote the perfect book, I wouldn't have to write again, and I wouldn't want to. That's not true for everyone, but it's true for me. I could walk away then. But so far I haven't managed to do it.

If you ever write a book, I can only give you one piece of advice. Don't let your parents get involved.

Writing a book isn’t an easy process nor is it always enjoyable, but it is one of life’s most satisfying achievements.

But I begin to think the chief difficulty in writing a book must be to keep out what does not belong to it.

Objectifying your own novel while writing it never really helps. Instead, I guess while you're writing you need to think: This is the novel I want to write. And when you're done you need to think: This is what the novel I wanted to write feels like and reads like and looks like. Other people might call it sweeping or small, but it's the book you chose.

Writing a book is quite an undertaking and I wouldn't want to do it just to do it.

[On her and husband Michael Dorris:] We both have title collections. I think a title is like a magnet. It begins to draw these scraps of experience or conversation or memory to it. Eventually, it collects a book.

Writing, for me, is a combination of objective and subjective approach. You take an objective approach at times to get you through things, and you take a subjective approach at other times, and that allows you to find an emotional experience for the audience.

When I'm blogging, I think book writing is easier and vice versa. Writing is lonely work, and the good thing about blogging is that you have immediate feedback from commenters.