I wasn't setting out to write a documentary; if I had, I would have done it in a completely different way. I was asked to write a drama that would appeal to a big audience in America that had no knowledge or interest in The Tudors at all.
Truly I never thought of myself as writing legal thrillers, and I still don't think I do. I write stories about women.
I love writing, and I am never as happy as when I have a week, a month - three months - with nothing to do but write.
I write to understand my circumstances, to sort out the confusion of reality, to exorcise my demons. But most of all, I write because I love it!
I can write with absolutely perfect penmanship with my feet. If I broke both my arms, I could still write a girl a love letter using just my toes.
But I love to write music. What I would love to do is give some of the songs I write to someone like Taylor Swift because I feel like she could sing them.
I write exactly what I think. If it's a raw subject, I write lots of things and then pull out all the fluff words.
I still don't know if I can write songs. I don't think anyone ever knows if they can write songs.
When I write I know that I'm going to have to produce 40 percent more than I need.
I am writing a book about the Crusades so dull that I can scarcely write it.
The most common misperception about me is that I write fast. I just write often. Every hour that I can.
I get drunk writing words. I don't drink or do drugs, but I get so carried away with writing that I get inebriated from it.
I write to discover what I think. After all, the bars aren't open that early.
I go through periods of not writing. Until there's something I can't find in the world that I need, so I write.
I'm not like a champion of profanity. I write what I hear, and the characters that I write, that's how they talk. That's how I talk a lot of the time. So I'm not trying to advance a social cause.
There are days when I intentionally don't write. For instance, I never write when I'm traveling, because travel is a situation where I can learn more by looking and listening than by working.
Well, to be honest I think I tell less truth when I write journalism than when I write fiction.
If I loved all the world as I do you, I shouldn't write books to it: I should only write letters to it, and that would be only a clumsy stage on the way to entire telepathy.
I'm not in it for the money. I like music. I love to write music. I can't imagine myself not playing or singing or writing. It would just drive me crazy if I didn't.
I had long wanted to write a love story, and I had long - wisely, I felt - shirked the challenge because I felt it the hardest story of all to write.
I love romantic comedies. I have a deep respect for them. I think they're really difficult to write and write well.