When we were making the law, when we were writing the literature and the mathematics the grandfarthers of Blair and little Bush were scratching around in caves.
'Olive Kitteridge' is a masterpiece: The writing is so perfect you don't even notice it; the story is so vivid it's less like reading a story than experiencing it firsthand.
Writing is much more satisfying on a certain level than acting ever was. Because you're not interpreting someone else's original idea, you can come up with your own.
Starbucks is the last public space with chairs. It's a shower for homeless people. And it's a place you can write all day. The baristas don't glare at you. They don't even look at you.
I don't think I'm essentially interested in children's books. I'm interested in writing, and in pictures. I'm interested in people and in children because they are people.
I have female friends that get mails from publishers that read 'Hey. I heard you write about sex. This is a very popular topic now'.
The hardest thing about writing a script is you finish it, but it doesn't mean anything. It's not like a novel or short story - a script is meant to be made into a movie.
One of the biggest motivations for me with writing my books is to offer girls some escapism, especially girls who really need it, like I did.
In high school, I wanted to be an actress. Until I got to college and took some creative writing courses. Then I decided I wanted to become a novelist.
I used to draw and illustrate, but I don't do that anymore because I just like to write. I like to leave the illustrations to actual professional illustrators.
I don't write that much horror. People tell me my books are scary, but they're not really; I don't go there.
I don't usually think of my writing as a 'challenge' because I enjoy the process so much. I suppose that's what's helped me to avoid 'writer's block' all these years.
I wasn't involved, except to the degree that they sent me drafts of the script as the writer turned them in. They asked me at one point to write a memo about what I thought of it.
Here's a secret. Many novelists, if they are pressed and if they are being honest, will admit that the finished book is a rather rough translation of the book they'd intended to write.
I wanted to express myself more fully through writing and directing. It just feels like a package deal. Anytime you create anything, you try to exert mastery over your world.
If you criticize what you’re doing too early you’ll never write the first line.” [ , interview with Jodi Daynard, No. 113, Winter II 1989]
We do not need to proselytise either by our speech or by our writing. We can only do so really with our lives. Let our lives be open books for all to study.
Cartooning is for people who can't quite draw and can't quite write. You combine the two half-talents and come up with a career.
Writing is a journey of discovery because until you start, you never know what will happen, and you can be surprised by what you do - expect the unexpected!
The type of stories I write are about young people grappling with the biggest problems in their lives, often problems that are bigger than they're actually capable of solving.
After I won the Oscar for 'Pollock,' some newspaper printed, 'She should get a million-dollar bump.' My sisters would write me, 'You're gonna get this million-dollar bump!'
