Mario Vargas Llosa Quotes

Doing interesting things and then writing about them is the best way to become a good writer.

It seems to me in the past it's been a good thing, as a writer, to have experiences I hadn't expected.

I still write the same way and have the same perspective.

I don't think many of us launched ourselves into the world of writing books fully formed.

When I went to college I took a creative writing class and decided in a week to be a writer.

If you want to be a good writer, be the best writer in the world. That's what I've done.

I'm a writer who likes to be influenced.

I guess you could say I've been writing all my life.

Other writers definitely influence my writing. What encourages me and inspires me is when I read a good book. It makes me want to be a better writer.

I wanted to write stories for myself. At first it was purely an aesthetic thing about craft. I just wanted to become good at the art of something. And writing was very private.

I think very visually, and I just never thought I had a novel in me.

I write what's given me to write.

Don't romanticise your 'vocation.' You can either write good sentences or you can't. There is no 'writer's lifestyle.' All that matters is what you leave on the page.

I always wrote. I wrote every day. I don't think I could have written 'Just Kids' had I not spent all of the '80s developing my craft as a writer.

There is no motivation higher than being a good writer.

I always wanted to be a writer. In the beginning, I thought I had to rewrite 'Gone with the Wind,' but eventually, I found my way and realized that wasn't me.

Ultimately, you've got to have something to say, so a writer should continue learning things throughout life. But I don't think education makes one a writer.

I didn't know I was gonna be a writer when I started out.

Once I started writing, I realized just how much I really enjoyed it. I was kinda good at it, so I kept at it.

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 enjoy it too much - even if I knew I'd never get a book published, I would still write. I enjoy the experience of getting thoughts and ideas and plots and characters organised into this narrative framework.

I discovered that writing was very nice indeed when I was very young, and I never changed. I don't think my style has changed very much at all - though I hope what I say is a bit more interesting. It's about getting to know a character and loving them, I think.

I was able to work out all sorts of attitudes to style and event and character, all of which affected the way I came to think about my own writing. I believe that all good writers are original.

It really wasn't until I was in college when I began to write more and more, and I realized I was scheduling my entire life around my writing.

Writing a novel - unlike operating a piece of heavy machinery, say, or cooking a chicken - is not a skill that can be taught. There is no standard way of doing it, just as there is no means of telling, while you're doing it, whether you're doing it well or badly. And merely because you've done it well once doesn't mean you can do it well again.