Elizabeth Barrett Browning Quotes

My writing day has grown shorter as I've aged, although it seems to produce the same number of pages.

I don't write quickly, and I don't want to.

I write very, very slowly, and for me, I have to summon all sorts of resources to make one of these pieces work.

I'm not the fastest writer. I can't just crank out ideas that are good enough.

I began to write when I was seven, and I have been writing off and on ever since. It is still off and on. You can say that when I am on, when I know I have a book which I am going to write, then I write two thousand words a day. That's so many pages longhand.

But, later, coming back and reading what I have produced, I am unable to detect the difference between what came easily and when I had to sit down and say, "Well, now it's writing time and now I'll write.

The most common misperception about me is that I write fast. I just write often. Every hour that I can.

I can write a book in probably three months.

Writing sessions can last an hour or sixteen hours, depending on how it's going.

I don't read books regularly, because I'm always writing them. I've written 30 books, thousands of pages.

When I do write, it happens really easily. I'll just kind of sing along to whatever I'm playing, then find a line to build off of, then sit down and write. When I do write, I take care of business!

Some days I'm lucky to squeeze out a page of copy that pleases me, but I get as many as six or seven pages on a very good day; the average is probably three pages.

It takes me ages to write stuff.

For that reason you can't write with music playing, and anyone who says he can is either writing badly, or not listening to the music, or lying. You need to hear what you're writing, and for that you need silence.

I write about five thousand words a day, when working on a book, about three thousand a day if I'm writing a short story. I take long periods off between projects, when I read a lot, garden, and think about the next book or stories.

I try to write 1,000 words. Some people say it's not about the quantity but about the quality. I disagree. You need to write a lot in order to figure out what's good and what's crap.

Some things get written more quickly than others, but I can't really measure degrees of difficulty.

In terms of sheer writing I might have done most of my work by 11. If you get up at 6:30 or 7 you can get a huge amount done by 11 and have the rest of the day off if you want to, though I have to check my accumulating e-mails. No one ever sends me horrible e-mails. Although some of my books are supposed to be hated, no one ever tells me.

I've never been a fast writer.

I am a big outliner. For my adult book, 'The Visibles,' I did not outline, and it took me two years to write because I just didn't outline, and I had no path.

Normally, young writers have all the time in the world and they don't always use it well.

I write 2,000 words a day when I write. It sometimes takes three hours, it sometimes takes five hours.

My problem is never ideas. I've got more than I'll ever have time to write. It's all about how many I can get to, and which ones readers want to see the most.

I can do a book in three months if I spend all day, seven days a week at it and, in fact, I work better that way.

Well, I'm a slow writer. For me, a good day is a page, maybe a page and a half. I'd love to be more efficient, but I am not.