I used to object to being called an Indian writer, and would always say I was a writer who happened to be an Indian, and who happened to write about Indians.
One of the most challenging aspects of writing a memoir is finding your own voice, and you should be very careful about being influenced by someone else's voice.
I don't particularly like being angry about stuff. I'd rather hang out with my daughter and write my little books.
There's something really nice about writing something on Wednesday and watching it being performed live for a studio audience on Tuesday. You never really get that with novels.
Hip-hop, which is my generation's blues, is important to the characters that I write about. They use hip-hop to understand the world through language.
Be passionate about what you write, believe in your ability to convey timeless ideas, and let no one tell you what what you're capable of.
I didn't think about whether I was writing poems. I was thinking. And the more I was thinking, the more there was I didn't understand.
You can't predict the number of years it will take for someone to find themselves, to mature into their own voice. When I got to be 30, I was finally writing like Danny Brown.
I think it's sort of an outrage that companies should have to hire firms to teach the college graduates they employ how to write.
I always say when you write a book, you're a 'one-man band.' Whereas, when you finish a screenplay, it's just a sketch.
I've been meaning to write about the Rolling Stones, but I am the furthest thing from a hipster rock journalist.
It's a cliche, but true, that writing is intensely solitary and at times really lonely. I sit in one room and talk to squirrels and blue jays all day.
I have been writing since I was about 20, and at first I wrote in secret and never showed anybody. I was very concerned about making a living, so I conducted.
My writing is really intuitive. As a kid, I went to school in New Jersey and hung out in New York, so the way kids used to talk got into our earlier songs.
Between each album I try to gain a new insight that I didn't have before and perhaps write a song about something that I've written about before, but from a fresh viewpoint.
I'm an intense guy. I run 10 miles a day, which helps alleviate my intensity. Also, singing helps defuse my intensity. Playing the piano helps, and writing helps.
I think it's the people who have no doubt that every word they put down is gold that probably don't write very well.
The only reason I would write a sequel is if I were struck by an idea that I felt to be equal to the original. Too many sequels diminish the original.
My general working style is to write everything first with pencil and paper, sitting beside a big wastebasket. Then I use Emacs to enter the text into my machine.
I didn't go into 'Rabbit Hole' wanting to write about class. I think because of who I am it somehow found its way into it.
The Germans and Austrians are very polite, the Swiss are very reserved and the Spanish usually kiss me. The Brits write me letters.
