writing

it’s not the being that matters, but the doing. Instead of being a writer, I just wrote. Instead of being a filmmaker, I made a movie.

All I knew then was what I couldn’t do. All I knew then was what I wasn’t, and it took me some years to discover what I was.

Which was a writer.

By which I mean not a “good” writer or a “bad” writer but simply a writer, a person whose most absorbed and passionate hours are spent arranging words on pieces of paper. Had my credentials been in order I w... See more

if you can’t even type it—forget about publishing it, we’re just talking about the initial keyboard action—that means that you don’t want to know yourself.

I was writing for some clear, single person—I would say myself, because I was quite content to be the only reader. I thought that everything that needed to be written had been written: there was so much. I am not being facetious when I say I wrote it in order to read it. And I think that is what makes the difference, because I could look at it as a... See more

Usually, we try to teach motive by asking: “Why should I, the reader, care about this?”

This is reasonable advice, but it’s also wrong. You, the writer, don’t know me. You don’t have a cluewhat I care about. The only reasons you can give me are the reasons you could give to literally anyone. “This issue is important because understanding it could in... See more

My beginnings are not beginnings; I just start. Sometimes I have to write the beginning after the book is done. Well, that seems like a natural thing, but many people don't go forward because the beginning isn't right; they just leave it until they get it right. I write what's there, what I know is there. If I have to rewrite it or change it, I'm n... See more