Julio Cortazar Quotes

I continue to write. It's just one of those things that I do. I'll have periods when I write and periods when I don't. But you don't want it to become a discipline really. If it becomes a discipline, it becomes a chore and that's no good.

I write based on powerful inner impulses, and those seem to shift over time.

I love to write and I assure you I write regularly... But I write for myself, for my own pleasure. And I want to be left alone to do it.

I am often asked why I write, and I don't know really--I just want to.

I'm writing for the sake of writing music. Whether it gets heard or not isn't an issue for me. It keeps my own juices going and my mind active.

I don't believe in inspiration. I write when I can't avoid writing anymore.

Pay attention to your passions. They are the key to starting and finishing the book you are meant to write. I don't believe in talent. I believe in passion.

People write because it seems like it'll be an easier job than carpet laying, that they might meet more girls. And they write because the world strikes them as being a marvelous place, and they want to keep bringing that to everybody's attention. You know ~ a scary place, a menacing place, an exciting place because it's scary and menacing. But mainly, kind of glorious.

Nobody cares much whether you write or not. You just have to do it

I have no control over my writing. I have lots of good intentions, but no control. There's a story that wants to be told.

If what you want to do is write, then it's madness not to do it.

I feel a passion for what we're trying to do.I mean, why does somebody who's old who's a writer keep writing? Because that's who they are.

I've never been that person who thought that because I've written one novel, I should write another and another. It's only when there was another novel to write that I was going to write another.

Your first book is the only one that matters. Perhaps a writer should write only that one. That is the one moment when you make the big leap; the opportunity to express yourself is offered that once, and you untie the knot within you then or never again.

The measure of artistic merit is the length to which a writer is willing to go in following his own compulsions.

The best thing about being an artist, instead of a madman or someone who writes letters to the editor, is that you get to engage in satisfying work. Even if you never publish a word, you have something important to pour yourself into.

Being in the mood to write, like being in the mood to make love, is a luxury that isn't necessary in a long-term relationship. Just as the first caress can lead to a change of heart, the first sentence, however tentative and awkward, can lead to a desire to go just a little further.

What I wanted to hear didn't exist, so it was necessary for me to go out and create it.

My novels come from within me; they are things I feel I want to do.

I like to work on records when I feel inspired, not because it's expected of me.

I always believed that whatever had to be written would somehow get itself written.

Writing was my route to creative expression, and I needed to write about the things that interested me.

Why do writers, say, give up a job in economics and decide to write poetry? Or, why do they give up a job in a bank and decide to paint, like Krishan Khanna? They want to convey something.

Lots of creativity is and should be solitary.

You know, there's always someone in mind when I'm writing. You know, it's all comes from somewhere inside.