Italo Calvino Quotes

If you want to be a writer, just write. There's no magic to it.

I write anywhere - when I have an idea, it's hard not to write. I used to be kind of precious about where I wrote. Everything had to be quiet and I couldn't be disturbed; it really filled my day.

I do not go down and sit in front of the computer and make myself write; that's not my style.

I'm always curious about other writers' routines.

My method is, I just sit down and write a book.

Not intending to be funny: I sit at the keyboard, put my fingers on the keys and go. To me, it's the real secret of writing. Put yourself in front of the screen or the blank sheet of paper and get to work.

People imagine that there are rituals, like lighting candles or sacrificing chickens. They really just want to know what the magic formula is for writing. I inevitably disappoint them by saying you just put your butt in the chair, and you write 500 words a day, and then you get up and repeat it the next morning.

I've never had a writer's block, but still I think: 'Is it going to happen this time?' You never know what you're going to get; you just put your fingers on the keys and hope.

I used to get up and write every day, even if I wasn't working on a specific thing. Now, when I have a thing I'm in the middle of, I do that, but when I'm not, time can go by when I'm not writing at all.

I write every day... I never get ideas unless I'm actually writing. Ideas I get in the shower don't do me any good.

You won't make a living writing until you learn to write when you don't want to.

For any writers at all, read everything you can and then put your butt in the chair and write. That's all there is to it.

I don't even subscribe to writer's block being a truthful thing. I've had writer's laziness quite often. But I think it's all about sitting down and facing down the blank page and doing it, and I've always been ok at that.

The point always is to be writing something - it leads to more writing.

If you wish to be a writer, write.

I write every day. I don't have a writing schedule. I write when I feel like it. Fortunately, I feel like it all the time. I am writing for hours. I do like to write in the morning. I start after breakfast, like 9 o'clock, and I'll write till lunch, about 1. And after lunch, I just have fun.

My writing routine is: get son off to school and sit down at 8 A.M. I read what I wrote the day before, and then write longhand, into a notebook. I prefer paper and pen because it feels closer to my brain.

Writing - not being a writer with interesting habits - gets priority.

I like writing. I get cranky when I can't. Yes, I write books back to back, and I work very hard on them.

I'm not one of those writers I learned about who get up in the morning, put a piece of paper in their typewriter machine and start writing. That I've never understood.

I write constantly about everything.

I never think about the actual process of writing. I suppose I have a superstition about examining it too closely.

My only ritual is to just sit down and write, write every day.

I am always trying to write.

I don't believe in writer's block or waiting for inspiration. If you're a writer, you sit down and write.