I'm an efficient, good, professional reporter. But I also write. And so what I try to do is write about places that I know that I care about intensely and write about them in a way that conveys the fact that I care.
More than periods where I don't write anything, I have periods where I just write junk and I know I'm writing junk but I can't stop.
I'm pretty obsessive-compulsive, and I'm very fast. I tend to not write for a long period of time until I can't not write, and then I write first drafts in gallops. I won't eat right. I forget to do my laundry.
When I became more involved in music, I had to give up some of my writing in the literary sense. However, on occasion, I would write something for my own pleasure or I would write notes and introductory remarks in the songbooks I put together.
After 'A Suitable Boy,' I didn't write anything, not even a short story. I thought to myself: 'I ought to start writing.' But I can never force myself to write.
What I do say is that I can write verse, and that the writing of verse in strict form is the best possible training for writing good prose.
I end up writing about all kinds of things. I never make an attempt to write about anything in particular. I don't have a little list of topics to write about.
I write essays to clear my mind. I write fiction to open my heart.
I would never write about someone that forced me to write at a lower register than what I can write.
I definitely script things out. I definitely write things down and try to write jokes. Often, they're terrible. I often write terrible, terrible jokes.
I tend to write about my anxieties - it's what I'm afraid will happen. And I write a story working it out.
Really, when I write a book I'm the only one I have to please. That's the beauty of writing a book instead of a screenplay.
I hate writing. I almost never write. I write against deadlines. And when I'm teaching, I'm focused on that.
I don't have as tight a time limit anymore but I still write in long marathon sessions and then I won't write for a while, I'm not a write-every-day writer.
I don't write tracts, I write novels. I'm not a preacher, I'm a fiction writer.
When I write legally, I try to write very plain, very vanilla, very clear.
With my writing, what I want to do is humanize the young people I write about.
My writing improved the more I wrote - and the more I read good writing, from Shakespeare on down.
There's always going to be controversy when you write the way I write.
I write back to all the soldiers who write to me and send them posters and calendars.
On writing, my advice is the same to all. If you want to be a writer, write. Write and write and write. If you stop, start again. Save everything that you write. If you feel blocked, write through it until you feel your creative juices flowing again....
