But I think talent as a writer is hard-wired in, it's all there, at least the basic elements of it. You can't change it any more than you can choose whether to be right handed or left handed.
We like to think about how smart we are. But I think talent as a writer is hard-wired in, it's all there, at least the basic elements of it. You can't change it any more than you can choose whether to be right handed or left handed.
A.J. Liebling, one of my heroes, used to say that he could write better than anyone who wrote faster, and faster than anyone who could write better. I'm one nine-hundredth as good as Liebling, but that principle may slightly apply.
Good writers are often excellent at a hundred other things, but writing promises a greater latitude for the ego.
I have always been able to write on the spot. It is a talent that I guess comes naturally.
I never write. Never! I do not even remember if I can write.
I'm a big admirer of Daniel Woodrell for his beautiful, precise, sparse prose - I don't do succinct well, so I'm in awe of writers who do.
English of course is your major tool, but it is not nearly so important as other aspects of writing for example you have to have some natural ability you can't buy it no one puts it there you're born with it.
My father, Leo Henry Brown, really was talented - he could write. He had a gift, and he had a great, sly humor.
There are plenty of clever young writers. But there is too much genius, not enough talent.
There are seldom more than a couple of students in any workshop who seem natural writers.
I always had a gift with writing. I can really write. I always felt like I can write movies or somehow get into that.
I think anybody alert to the inspiration to write has to be kind of sensitized to the unexpected.
Just because someone has stylistic limitations doesn't necessarily make them a worse writer.
The fact that we write about it doesn't mean we play better than ordinary players at all.
While I wasn't very good at much else in school, in my creative-writing classes or when we had to do some writing in my English classes, I tended to do better at it.
Sean's a great, great writer.
I couldn't even pick up the newspaper without saying, 'This is a fine piece of writing. I wish to hell I could write like this.'
I just have a thing for writers. Maybe it because I'm just so not a writer.
In writing I found something I could do at least as well as my peers, if not better.
I'm quite good at not writing.
I have always thought that writers come with any variety of attributes. Some are capable and some aren't.
I didn't set out to write. It was just something I always could do. Teachers would say, 'you really have this gift,' but I just didn't care.
It is always difficult to get across to people who are not professional writers that a talent to write does not mean a talent to write anything at all.
The sort of strenuous reading and writing program I advocate - four to six hours a day, every day - will not seem strenuous if you really enjoy doing these things and have an aptitude for them.
