Peter Bichsel Quotes

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

My son had toyed with the idea of writing and trying to write a little bit, so that kind of gave me the bug to write also.

I have to make myself write, sometimes. In the space between poems, you somehow forget how to do it, where to begin. It was good to be task - based for a while. I just came downstairs each day, picked the one I was going to do that day, and wrote.

I didn't know anything about writers. It never occurred to me they were regular people and that I could grow up to become one, even though I loved to make up stories inside my head.

I guess the thing that I'm most proud of is that I kept on writing poetry. I understand that poetry is sort of the source of everything I do. It's the source of my creativity.

I'm a writer who likes to be influenced.

I write all the time - I write poetry, I love to write.

The great fun in my life has been getting up every morning and rushing to the typewriter because some new idea has hit me.

Love is the answer to everything. It's the only reason to do anything. If you don't write stories you love, you'll never make it. If you don't write stories that other people love, you'll never make it.

People inspire me to write, the good ones and the bad ones.

I've always kind of wrote when I wanted to. Once I get the idea in my head and get it outlined out, I usually just sit and write until it's done.

First, I do not sit down at my desk to put into verse something that is already clear in my mind. If it were clear in my mind, I should have no incentive or need to write about it.

The writing part of my life never changes, because that's just when the inspiration comes.

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

It was a combination of an intense interest in children's literature, which I've always had, and the feeling that I'd just have a go and see if I could do it.

My aunt got me interested in journalism - she found an old typewriter, had it worked over, put it on the dining room table, gave me a stack of paper and said, 'Play like you're a writer.'

I love to read poetry but I haven't written anything that I'm willing to show anybody.

I began writing at the age of 5, but there was a dark period between the ages of 8 and 16 when I didn't write. I started again at 16 and have no idea why, but it was suddenly the only thing I wanted to do.

There's a mystery to writing, and you don't really know where most of it comes from.

I hope the wonder of what happens to my characters never goes away. That yearning keeps me writing.

I don't think there's a shortage of material in the world. Or in my head. I just pray for continued good health, because I've got other stories to tell.

I was reading a lot of books I admired, and thought that I would like to write something like that someday.

As an author, I've never forgotten how to daydream.

Sixteen years as a freelance features journalist taught me that neither the absence of 'the Muse' nor the presence of 'the block' should be allowed to hinder the orderly progress of a book.

I'm conscious of a series of circles working its way through my life. And at this particular moment I have come round to the beginning of my writing cycle. It begins with poetry. There's hardly a day that goes past on which I don't write poetry.