Thomas Pynchon: No literature without paranoia
“There is no literature and art without paranoia. Probably there would be even civilization. Paranoia is the world. It is the attempt to make sense of what has not.” ― …
Read MoreTag: Why Write
E.A. Bucchianeri: The Book is more important
The Book is more important than your plans for it. You have to go with what works for The Book…if your ideas appear hollow or forced when they are put …
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George R.R. Martin: Of architects and gardeners
I think there are two types of writers, the architects and the gardeners. The architects plan everything ahead of time, like an architect building a house. They know how many …
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Marcel Proust: Reading oneself, self-recognition
Every reader, as he reads, is actually the reader of himself. The writer’s work is only a kind of optical instrument he provides the reader so he can discern what …
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Mark Haddon: Writing is like being gay
I don’t remember deciding to become a writer. You decide to become a dentist or a postman. For me, writing is like being gay. You finally admit that this is …
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Colm Toibin: Of Hidden and Difficult Things
I write with a sort of grim determination to deal with things that are hidden and difficult, and this means, I think, that pleasure is out of the question. I …
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Roald Dahl: No master except his soul
A person is a fool to become a writer. His only compensation is absolute freedom. He has no master except his own soul, and that, I am sure, is why …
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John Green: Home amid suffering
I believe there is hope for us all, even amid the suffering – and maybe even inside the suffering. And that’s why I write fiction, probably. It’s my attempt to …
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Gloria E. Anzaldúa: Being more intimate with myself
Why am I compelled to write? . . . Because the world I create in the writing compensates for what the real world does not give me. By writing I …
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