Quote

I don't like re-writing very much. The fourth and the fifth draft - that's too much like work. There's not much inspiration about it, and the lawyerly side kicks in - being very careful and somewhat technical.

The more interesting the 9-to-5 work is, the more it takes away from my real work, which is writing.

Writing provides no guarantees. And writers who stay with writing do it for reasons that are larger than self.

I think a man turns into a writer by editing his own texts.

I have to re-write a lot. I couldn't tell you how many drafts I write, but I know I've done at least twenty rewrites on each book.

I have more ideas than I'll ever be able to write in five lifetimes.

Writing for me is largely about rewriting.

Writers are used to being re-created, and need it.

For me, most writing consists of siphoning out useless pre-story matter, cutting and cutting and cutting, what seems to be endless rewriting, and what is entailed in all that is patience, and waiting, and false starts, and dead ends, and really, in a way, nerve.