Writing as a Skill Quotes

I learned to write by writing. I tended to do anything as long as it felt like an adventure, and to stop when it felt like work, which meant that life did not feel like work.

I'm a writer, and the subject is less important than the act of writing itself.

Writing is like a sport. If you don't practice, you don't get any better.

Somebody's always getting me to come lecture to their writing class, and I don't talk about writing at all, I talk about the business of making a living at this racket.

I realized Michael was right. I mean, I am always writing in this journal. And I do compose a lot of poetry, and write a lot of notes and emails and stuff. I mean, I feel like I am always writing. I do it so much, I never even thought about it as a talent. It's just something I do all the time, like breathing.

I knew I loved writing, and I was raised by people who love books.

I always loved writing, but never considered that I could do it professionally.

I never attended a creative writing class in my life. I have a horror of them; most writers groups moonlight as support groups for the kind of people who think that writing is therapeutic. Writing is the exact opposite of therapy.

The only thing I can say that is not bullshit is that you do have to learn to write in a way that you would learn to play the violin. Everybody seems to think that you should be able to turn on the faucet one day and out will come the novel. I think for most people it's just practice, practice, practice, that sense of just learning your instrument until - when you have an idea on the violin, you don't have to translate it into violin-speak anymore - the language is your own. It's not something you can think your way into, or outsmart. you've just got to do it.

Write, write, and write some more. Think of writing as a muscle that needs lots of exercise.

I never earned a dollar that was not somehow through writing.

Literature flourishes best when it is half a trade and half an art.

I get a great high from writing.

A professional writer is an amateur who didn't quit.

Many writers can't make a living. So to be able to teach how to write is valuable to them. But I don't really know about its value to the student. I don't mean it's useless. But I wouldn't have wanted anyone to teach me how to write.

I've been a writer for 42 years and, yes, it is a full time job for me. Not a hobby, but serious work.

I may not have become a good writer, but I managed to make a living out of writing.

Writing is a conviction before it is a craft.

I didn't want to write for pay. I wanted to be paid for what I write.

Writing only leads to more writing.

I hadn't ever worked with an 'editor' until I was 26 - although that could be partly chalked up to the MFA vs. NYC thing, where I came up through institutions that encouraged writers to write privately for a long, long time and not sully themselves with concerns about audience or the business side of writing.

I always talk to my students about the need to write for the joy of writing. I try to sort of disaggregate the acclaim from the act of writing.

Being a writer is not the point. Writing is.

I've always liked to write, but I never thought I could make a career out of it.

Creative writing programmes are not very necessary. They just exist so that people like us can make a living.