So you need to deliver a speech, let’s say 20 minutes long, to salespeople. You’ve got a new product ready to push out to Read More...
When writing a novel, that’s pretty much entirely what life turns into: “House burned down. Car stolen. Cat exploded. Did 1,500 easy words, so all in all it was a pretty good day.”
It took me fifteen years to discover I had no talent for writing, but I couldn’t give it up because by that time I was too famous.
Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.
A true author, no matter the medium, is an artist with godlike knowledge of his subject, and the proof of his authorship is that his pages smack of authority.
Writing is not necessarily something to be ashamed of, but do it in private and wash your hands afterwards.
To me, movies and music go hand in hand. When I’m writing a script, one of the first things I do is find the music I’m going to play for the opening sequence.
You may be able to take a break from writing, but you won’t be able to take a break from being a writer.
Critics are people who sit on the mountaintop and look down on the battlefield. When the fighting is finished, they take it upon themselves to come down from the mountain and shoot the survivors.
Do you know what a playwright is? A playwright is someone who lets his guts hang out on the stage.
What I loved most about calling myself a reporter was that it gave me an excuse to show up anyplace.
If you haven’t got an idea, start a story anyway. You can always throw it away, and maybe by the time you get to the fourth page you will have an idea, and you’ll only have to throw away the first three pages.
Thank your readers and the critics who praise you, and then ignore them. Write for the most intelligent, wittiest, wisest audience in the universe: Write to please yourself.
In Hollywood, the woods are full of people that learned to write but evidently can’t read. If they could read their stuff, they’d stop writing.
It begins with a character, usually, and once he stands up on his feet and begins to move, all I can do is trot along behind him with a paper and pencil, trying to keep up long enough to put down what he says and does.
There are three primal urges in human beings: Food, sex, and rewriting someone else’s play.
Writers aren’t people exactly. Or, if they’re any good, they’re a whole lot of people trying so hard to be one person.

























