I wouldn't say the world is my parish, but my readers are my parish. And especially the readers that write to me. They're my parish. And it's a responsibility that I enjoy.
My own habit had always been to write about the things that ticked me off in a given day. If I kept a journal at all, I kept it to vent.
As an American man of the 1990s writing about a Japanese woman of the 1930s, I needed to cross three cultural divides - man to woman, American to Japanese, and present to past.
Writing a novel was completely awesome because parts of it could suck and I could throw them away. I didn't have to know the ending until I got there.
After a while, the characters I'm writing begin to feel real to me. That's when I know I'm heading in the right direction.
My writing has always been what you call 'narrative fiction' in the sense that it's got very strong plots and twists at the end.
I'm always crazy around you Rose. Here, I'm going to write an impromptu poem for you. 'Rose is in red But never in blue Sharp as a thorn Fights like one too.
When you are angry try your best to go to sleep, it keeps you away from speaking, writing and thinking while you are angry.
The writer writes in order to teach himself, to understand himself, to satisfy himself; the publishing of his ideas, though it brings gratification, is a curious anticlimax.
Understood what the struggle was about. My mother. Couldn't read or write, but she had more sense than many a graduate from Harvard.
The parts of me that hurt the worst want me to write something for them, but I can't. I don't know what to say. I'm lost in all this sadness, and so are they.
In twenty years I've never had a day when I didn't have to think about someone else's needs. And this means the writing has to be fitted around it.
I started to write things down, as a very young child, wanting to find a way to remember - to keep close, somehow - moments that made an impression on me.
A musician must make music, an artist must paint, an poet must write, if he is to be ultimately at peace with himself. What a man can be, he must be.
My plan is to continue teaching many more years than the 32 years I've already enjoyed and continue writing, and promoting my books and websites if it's God will.
A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be ultimately at peace with himself. What a man can be, he must be
It's while writing that suddenly a point of view appears: 'So, that's what I really thought about this thing'. Then it feels part of me.
I do believe, and I will always believe, that Shakespeare on film is really something that should be tried more often because it is an opportunity to take the humanity that Shakespeare writes into characters and express it.
There may be writing groups where people meet but it's occasional. You really do it all at your own computer or your own typewriter by yourself.
I grew up in the theatre. It's where I got my start. Writing a television drama with theatrical dialogue about the theatre is beyond perfection.
I think one of the keys to better writing is releasing all of your ideas and to not be afraid. Dream big. This could be the greatest novel in the world you know.
