Writing as Discovery Quotes

When I write I'm never really thinking about themes or the universal.

My writings are an exploration, and I think a lot of writers would tell you this, but in writing, you're not simply putting down things that are already known to you. You're actually discovering in the writing process, you're actually creating knowledge.

I like the idea that every page in every book can have a gem on it. It's probably what I love most about writing - that words can be used in a way that's like a child playing in a sandpit, rearranging things, swapping them around.

A lot of writing is thinking.

The things worth writing about, and the things worth reading about, are the things that feel almost beyond description at the start and are, because of that, frightening.

What I love is the writing, it's not having written. I like the process of it.

The need to write comes from the need to make sense of one's life and discover one's usefulness.

The writing that feels the best to me, I experience sometimes, is a kind of weirdly deep listening - like, it feels like if you just listen hard enough, the next sentence will tell you what it needs to be.

I always write out of a need to read something, rather than a need to write something.

I love the physical act of writing as well as how I grow which each situation I put on the page.

When you sit down to write, you have to be prepared to strip all of those voices away, all of the censors away, and talk about what you think the truth is, which I think is really the task of the writer - to get to the truth.