“Men often wanted Mitchell to be a wife, a muse, a siren, or a star. Instead, they got a genius, and one especially suited to deconstructing their fantasies of her.”— Dan Chiasson, newyorker.com
“Mitchell writes about emotional information: who controls it, and how it is squandered or hoarded, withheld or weaponized. This requires some reconnaissance, which for Mitchell involves falling in and out of love, over and over—not so much a research method as a form of self-surgery.”— Dan Chiasson, newyorker.com
“Travel is what people live for. It’s what they save their money and precious vacation days for. There’s a lot of anxiety that surrounds planning and getting it right. There’s so much pressure on trips to deliver happiness and make memories and create transformations, so it’s a lot of responsibility.…”— Pilar Guzmán, thecut.com
“Finally, there came a time when I decided to ignore all the advice I had read and do the only thing I know how to do, which is write. I wrote what I felt like writing, when I felt like writing, how I felt like writing. I jumped all over the place. None of my chapters had numbers. I didn’t take notes…”— Roxane Gay, nanowrimo.org
“I didn't write them for money; I wrote them because it occurred to me to write them. I have a marketable obsession. There are madmen and madwomen in padded cells the world over who are not so lucky.”— Stephen King, amazon.com
“Now, what Hemingway said is that the best thing that can happen to a writer is when they pay you a lot of money for it but never make the movie. I’ve never felt that way, I’m always anxious to see what they do with it.”— Stephen King, vulture.com
“As far as I’m concerned, if somebody wants to make a movie [from my stories], I’m behind that idea and I’m always interested to see what they come up with.”— Stephen King, vulture.com
“There are other factors: Some of the recent things have been successful, like the miniseries of 11/22/63, and I think when that happens, people say to themselves, ‘If X succeeds, maybe Y will.’ But I’d like to think a lot of it is just the material, that people see something in these stories that wo…”— Stephen King, vulture.com
“They are tangled children, trying to make their way in spite of the handicaps you have imposed on them.”— John Macdonald, amazon.com
“You have to have a taste for words. Gluttony. You have to want to roll in them. You have to read millions of them written by other people.”— John Macdonald, amazon.com
“I am often given the big smiling handshake at parties (which I avoid attending whenever possible) by someone who then, with an air of gleeful conspiracy, will say, ‘You know, I’ve always wanted to write.’ I used to try to be polite. These days I reply with the same jubilant excitement: ‘You know, I’…”— John Macdonald, amazon.com
“Even if it isn’t the piece of work that finds an audience, it will teach you things you could have learned no other way.”— J. K. Rowling, marieclaire.co.uk
“Writing is a notoriously bad life decision if one has goals of security, but I guess that, in order to fly, you have to lose touch with the ground.”— Torre Deroche, fearfuladventurer.com
“I don't have any magic tips. When I needed an agent, I googled how do I get an agent? and followed the directions.”— Roxane Gay, twitter.com
“Writers are always looking for the secret. And sometimes someone knows someone or whatever but mostly you just need to write.”— Roxane Gay, twitter.com
“Write a bad song. Write a very bad song. But write a song. Then write another.”— John Mayer, twitter.com
“I don't need to make more stuff. I've made a lot of stuff! I'm financially okay. I'm not gonna make stuff just for the sake of making stuff. I want to make stuff ’cause I'm inspired. Right now I don't really feel inspired.”— Aziz Ansari, gq.com
“Can you imagine if someone called us a few years ago and said, ‘All right, you're going to have this much money when you're this age. What are you gonna do with it?’ You would say all sorts of fantastical things, right? No one would say, Oh, I would figure out how to make more money and keep working…”— Aziz Ansari, gq.com