Truman Capote Quotes

Like my hero Virginia Woolf, I do lack confidence. I always find that the novel I'm finishing, even if it's turned out fairly well, is not the novel I had in my mind. I think a lot of writers must negotiate this, and if they don't admit it, they're not being honest.

My stories are never quite good enough.

I always had a superstitious fear of setting up a too well-designed writing place and then finding that the writing had absconded.

Now you mustn't think that I don't have any ideas for novels in my head. I've got ideas for ten novels in my head. But with every idea I have, I already foresee the wrong novels I would write, because I also have critical ideas in my head; I've got a full theory of the perfect novel, and that's what stumps me.

Catch me on a good day, I think half of my books aren't too bad. Catch me on a bad day, I think I've never written a good line.

For a long time I managed to think two things simultaneously, that I am actually a good playwright, and that the next time I write a play I will be revealed as someone who is no good at all.

I had no ambition to be a writer because the books I read were too good, my standards were too high.

I've tried writing. Two days later I'd go visit it and say, Jesus Christ, who wrote this crap?

The screenwriters I know share a few personality traits and one of them is anxiety.

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

I'm fairly competant as a director and actor, but I am Mr. Neurotic as a writer. I just don't have enough confidence in my abilities to take criticism well. I take it personally. Start with 'It's a masterpiece,' and then tell me what you think could be changed.

I find writing extremely difficult. I usually have to drag myself to my desk, mainly because I doubt myself. And it's getting harder because I want to improve with every book.

If one book's done this well, you want to write another one that does just as well. There's that horror of the second novel that doesn't match up.

Before I sat down and became a writer, before I began to do it habitually and for my living, there was a decades-long stretch when I was terrified that it would suck, so I didn't write. I think that marks a lot of people, a real terror at being bad at something, and unfortunately, you are always bad before you can get a little better.

In my case, the long gaps between my books have got quite a lot to do with lack of confidence. A lot of the time when I'm not writing I start thinking I can't do it.

I always think the insecurity is going to go away, but it's always there. Only bad writers think they're good.

I put a lot of pressure on myself. I tell my wife when she's listening to my songs that the slightest hint of whether she likes it or not puts the pressure on me.

Every word I write I suspect the next day.

I always feel very afraid as I work on books. It's just so hard to write a decent book!

If you're a writer, you're constantly doubting yourself.

Until a book starts forming in your head, you always wonder, 'Am I going to be able to do this again?'

I tend to delay writing by doing more research - it's really the act of writing the piece that I have the hardest time with.

I'm very hard on myself when it comes to writing.

I think that there's the self-imposed pressure to come up with something that's good. For guys like us, that's much more important than any external pressure could really be.

I'm impossible when a book is taking shape. Well, actually, I'm despicable.