I write as if I were drunk. It is a process of intuition rather than placing myself above my story like a puppeteer pulling strings. For me, it's a scary, chaotic process over which I have little control. Words demand other words, characters resist me.
Elif Safak
Related I was his as if I had been born for that very purpose, as if my body were a puppet, and he was the p... L. DUARTE It is a lie. ARTHUR MILLER I felt as if I had no control over what I said, as if loathsome, ugly words were waiting inside me l... GLORIA WHELAN Writing, for me, is a very fluid process. I sit down and wait for the words to come. They usually do... SHARON DRAPER Something that came as a shock to me is that we do not have a constitutional right to vote. And that... MO ROCCA I admit I'm an escapist when it comes to books. I become drunk on story, on words, as a buffer again... JOANNA DAVIDSON POLITANO I like to dabble in different things, but music is my first love. It connects to me in a way my side... EVE I like being a storyteller. I'm bored with myself; I like to write about others. I have a lot of... JILL SOBULE When it's your words, and then you watch it connect with an audience as the artist, I kinda refl... BRETT YOUNG I write when the urge hits me, getting the words down as fast as I can type and then I step back fro... DONALD MCKAY After so many books and so many years of writing, I have a good idea of my strengths and weaknesses.... WALTER DEAN MYERS For me as an actor, I find it's most creative when I'm bringing myself into the role rather ... FINN JONES Go away. I'm all right. , LAST WORDS Over the years, a number of people have asked me why I tend to write at this great length. I've ... KATHARINE KERR If there was anything that I learned with my own writing process, maybe there's too many choices... EDDIE VEDDER Well, you know, certain - for one reason, I think that the intervention process is a good process fo... TANYA TUCKER Very often, writing a song is a process that happens to me rather than one that I instigate. I feel ... KAT EDMONSON I have several books I can read over and over. With fiction, it's 'The Stand' by Stephen... COREY TAYLOR I like pulling on a baggy bee suit, forgetting myself and getting as close to the bees' lives as the... SUE HUBBELL I think it's a short story writer's duty, as well as writing well about emotions and charact... ERIC BROWN I like to edit my sentences as I write them. I rearrange a sentence many times before moving on to t... KAREN THOMPSON WALKER It doesn't annoy me but I think of myself as a presenter who is gay, rather than a gay presenter... EVAN DAVIS It's fun for me to try to write concise, compact things. It's a very good exercise for me. A... WILLIAM T. VOLLMANN It's hard to find a play that's right for me to do. Rather than waiting around for the right... DAN CASTELLANETA Chess: It's like alcohol. It's a drug. I have to control it, or it could overwhelm me. I hav... CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER I have to be involved. Whether it's me writing by myself or with other people, I definitely want... DAVID COOK I feel the emotion that life conjures up and the songs I write get me closer to my feelings and real... TAYLOR SWIFT Some people write a thank you note for a gift, and it's three pages long, and some people write ... BILL CALLAHAN you have to be the prude or the slut, and if you pick one, other people hate you for it, and you can... NED VIZZINI And I'm a slow writer: five, six hundred words is a good day. That's the reason it took me 2... SHELBY FOOTE Write every day. Don't kill yourself. I think a lot of people think, 'I have to write a chap... CASSANDRA CLARE I'm not just a reader or a writer; I inhale written words like they're my oxygen. It's not a hobby. ... NICOLA HAKEN I don't see myself only as a Somali character. I think of myself as an actor, and if the job fit... BARKHAD ABDI It's kind of like a challenge to myself to be able to hear somebody else's hook and kind of ... EMINEM 'Romance' is based on my entire creative process. I fall in love with an idea, obsess over i... CHUCK PALAHNIUK My works really begin in a very simple way. Sometimes it's an image, and sometimes it's word... BILL VIOLA For women like me, integrity isn't chastity, it isn't fidelity, it isn't any of the old words. Integ... DORIS LESSING I'm just trying to write a good story, strictly from imagination. People just think it's ran... ERIC JEROME DICKEY I write because there is a madness within me to express my thoughts in words. I write because I feel... AVIJEET DAS It's such a private thing - 'my process' - I can just say that the work that I do is lik... KIRSTEN DUNST I write my novels longhand. I love the feeling of writing; I love to see pen on paper. It feels more... CECELIA AHERN I usually submit a novel at a certain number of words, and when I've finished working with my ed... DAVID BERGEN Usually I like playing other people. I like finding myself through other characters. But when you do... FAITH PRINCE This life is a process of learning. LAURYN HILL Life is a process. We are a process. The universe is a process. ANNE WILSON SCHAEF Sometimes when I prepare to write, I feel the same sensation wash over me as if my toes were curling... RICHELLE E. GOODRICH Sometimes I think that if it were possible to tell a story often enough to make the hurt ease up, to... ANITA SHREVE It takes me a long time to write, and I trust myself, so I write very sparsely, so when I do, I know... EARL SWEATSHIRT I just found myself creating things over and above what my clients were expecting. It was kind of a ... FRANK HYMAN I write exactly what I think. If it's a raw subject, I write lots of things and then pull out al... FKA TWIGS Writing is incidental to my primary objective, which is spinning a good yarn. I view myself as a sto... ASHWIN SANGHI It was a sad process for me to become a mom, and a long process. I felt so embarrassed that I couldn... NIA VARDALOS It's not about me - four simple words that described the life of Christ. Do you call yourself a ... MONICA JOHNSON Before my first child was born, I had nothing going on professionally really, and it's been a ve... SETH GABEL It is a small world. You do not have to live in it particuarly long to learn that for yourself. Ther... NEIL GAIMAN My process for determining which eras I'd write about was to just read history books that gave a... SUSAN BARKER Each story presents a mystery that has to be solved in the process of writing. When I'm at work ... CAROL WINDLEY If we all took a minute to reflect upon the wrong we do we would be quite surprised or shocked.Inste... GARY F EVANS... I wish I could describe anything I do as conscious or strategized. To be honest, in acting, you have... EDDIE REDMAYNE I'm a late bloomer. It's taken me a long time to find my voice, and I think all the records ... JENNY LEWIS On some level, every story draws something from life experiences. Most of the time, it's just a ... CULLEN BUNN One of my big goals as a human being is to continue to write what's really happening to me, even... TAYLOR SWIFT My grandmother taught me how to read, very early, but she taught me to read just the way she taught ... VIK MUNIZ All of my scripts are based on other people's novels. Generally, I consider myself as one who wr... TOM STOPPARD Chicken... I am a black man, we love our chicken, but I don't eat it anymore. My genotype means ... LARRY FITZGERALD Texting is not flirting, if you don't care about me enough to say the words than that's not ... LAUREN GRAHAM But I was wrong. I should have known it wasn't owver, couldn't be over quite easily. No sooner was X... ALEXANDRA ADORNETTO Words, words, words, a million million words circle in my head like hawks, waiting to dive onto the ... CHRISTOPHER MOORE I tell people I'm on a diet. If somebody sees me with a muffin, they'll think I'm off my... STEPHEN FURST I know if I don't look after myself, I will be talking to you in a couple of years' time mum... ANTHONY JOSHUA I'm writing about real things. Real people. Real characters. You have to believe what I write ab... LOU REED As Asian-Americans, we just don't often get the chance to tell the story from a leading person... RUTHIE ANN MILES For me, my life is a journey. JAY ELECTRONICA Creativity runs on automatic, no matter what's happening in other parts of my life. I can't ... MILLARD DREXLER It's a real strength for me that I've never minded the training process. It's something ... TOM BRADY Every story I write is different. Some are hard. Some aren't. 'Chronicle' was tremendous... MAX LANDIS The writing process is more... it becomes a case of more like a diary for me. I mean, I write stuff ... CHRISTINA MILIAN Maybe that's what praying is all about. Maybe it's not just asking God to forgive us for bad things ... SARAH DARER LITTMAN For me, writing music is kind of like a musical mirror where I write music and learn about myself in... DANIEL TRUEMAN GS Answer, yeah I know it... We were for little period of time texting nothing else... no friendship is... DEYTH BANGER I think some parents now look at a youngster failing as the final thing. It's a process, and fai... MIKE KRZYZEWSKI I might see something on TV and get inspired to write about it. I can't sit down and plan to wri... AARON NEVILLE I'm just me. I'm just very opinionated. I react to whatever I see. If it's good, it'... MEL B My life has been a dream. If someone had to write a story about it, it would seem a little unreal. I... RALPH LAUREN I have a harder time eating properly than I do exercising. It's easier for me to add an activity... CARRIE FISHER I just write what I wanted to write. I write what amuses me. It's totally for myself. I never in... J. K. ROWLING I don't really mind not being a part of a film - because if there is no part for me, I will neve... XAVIER DOLAN I'm a teacher and a writer; my life is words. When I see the denigration of language, it hurts m... ELIE WIESEL Language is a skin: I rub my language against the other. It is as if I had words instead of fingers,... ROLAND BARTHES I consider myself kind of a reporter - one who uses words that are more like music and that have a c... MARY OLIVER As great a public speaker as I am, I don't know have - I don't - I don't have the words ... RYNE SANDBERG The books brought brilliance to my life, and they brought an understanding: Life is a story. Everyth... RENE DENFELD It was a question I had worn on my lips for days - like a loose thread on my favourite sweater I cou... LANG LEAV I never think of myself as any kind of sex symbol, but I get letters from all over, all sorts. It... LAURA PREPON What I like to write about is stuff I know. I don't think I could write a novel. I don't thi... CAROL BURNETT Corporate nationalism to me is a little bit like what would have happened if Hitler had won. It'... LANCE HENRIKSEN I was influenced by surrealist poetry and painting as were thousands of other people, and it seems t... KENNETH KOCH I don't know about the hair. I've had it since I was a kid, and when I look at myself in the... ERIK HASSLE When I was a kid, my favorite movies were the George Pal version of 'War Of The Worlds,' ... DAVID GERROLD I will never leave him. It will be this, always, for as long as he will let me. If I had had wo... MADELINE MILLER
More Elif Safak
I love commuting between languages just like I love commuting between cultures and cities. ELIF SAFAK Books change us. Books save us. I know this because it happened to me. Books saved me. So, I do beli... ELIF SAFAK I write with humour about sadness, to introduce an element of sweet to the sour, a bit like Turkish ... ELIF SAFAK For me, writing stories is one way of feeling connected to the universe and God. ELIF SAFAK I find families intriguing, perhaps because I did not grow up in one. I was raised by a feminist, in... ELIF SAFAK I spent my entire childhood observing people. I still do. ELIF SAFAK God is the biggest storyteller, and when we create stories, we connect with him and with each other ... ELIF SAFAK At pivotal moments throughout history, there have always been grey areas, and there likely will be i... SAFAK PAVEY Many female politicians get intimidated by the aggressive behaviour of men. I don't. Not because... SAFAK PAVEY Families with disabled children are praying for their kids to die before them because they have no s... SAFAK PAVEY The government in Turkey, which represents the powerful, traditionalist mass, is very comfortable cr... SAFAK PAVEY I believe in peace-building in any kind of platform, be it a political platform like Parliament or n... SAFAK PAVEY Bear in mind how valuable a secular Turkey is for the world. SAFAK PAVEY The discourse of the West and the attitudes of its leaders are important because they influence publ... SAFAK PAVEY I certainly do not support excluding faith from public life. SAFAK PAVEY One of women's greatest values is compassion. SAFAK PAVEY I come from a fragmented society. A country proud to serve as a bridge between Europe and Asia yet u... SAFAK PAVEY It is well known that Turkey has more imprisoned journalists than any other country, but as a result... SAFAK PAVEY Priority is placed on the chastity of women. You can be corrupt, or a murderer and still hold your h... SAFAK PAVEY The government believed that adherence to authority was human nature, so the Gezi protests were a re... SAFAK PAVEY Because time is a drop in the ocean, and you cannot measure off one drop against another to see whic... ELIF SHAFAK What i’m saying is, my friends, one ought to be able to let go. If a path does not please us, inst... ELIF SHAFAK Hell is in the here and now. So is heaven. Quit worrying about hell or dreaming about heaven, as the... ELIF SHAFAK The words that come out of our mouths do not vanish but are perpetually stored in infinite space, an... ELIF SHAFAK و لو أراد الله أن نكون متشابهين ،لخلقنا متشابهين ، لذلك... ELIF SHAFAK Books change us. Books save us. I know this because it happened to me. ELIF SHAFAK Every true love and friendship is a story of unexpected transformation. If we are the same person be... ELIF SHAFAK Perhaps this is why lunatics have a harder time dating, not because they are off the wall but becaus... ELIF SHAFAK A saint belongs to all humanity. ELIF SHAFAK The Iron Rule of prudence for an Istanbulite Woman: If you are as fragile as a tea glass, either fin... ELIF SHAFAK Whatever happens in your life, no matter how troubling things might seem, do not enter the neighborh... ELIF SHAFAK Yeah, we should all line up along the Bosphorus Bridge and puff as hard as we can to shove this city... ELIF SHAFAK لا قيمة للحياة من دون عشق .لا تسأل نفسك ما نوع العشق الذ�... ELIF SHAFAK How can love be worthy of its name if one selects solely the pretty things and leaves out the hardsh... ELIF SHAFAK وكما يحتاج الصلصال إلي حرارة عالية ليشتد ّفالحب لا يكت�... ELIF SHAFAK Every winner is inclined to think he will be triumphant forever. Every loser tends to fear that he i... ELIF SHAFAK Всемирът е едно. Всичко и всички са свързани помежду си... ELIF SHAFAK Адът е тук и сега. Раят също. Престани да се плашиш от ад... ELIF SHAFAK Âdem ile Havva: Âdem ile Havva, yasak elmanın tadına varınca, farklılıklarını gördüler... ELIF SHAFAK Her maktul katilinde yaşamaya devam eder. ELIF SHAFAK Kim olursak olalım, dünyanın hangi yerinde yaşarsak yaşayalım, ta derinlerde bir yerde hepimiz... ELIF SHAFAK İnsanoğlu nedense anlayamadığı şeylere kötülemeye meyilli. ELIF SHAFAK كان الأمر بتلك الدرجة من السوء, مثل أن تخسر جائزة اليان�... ELIF SHAFAK لكنها كانت واثقة من أنها لا تستطيع أن تعرف حدودها إلا ع�... ELIF SHAFAK That is why we can suicidally fall in love with others but can rarely reciprocate the love of those ... ELIF SHAFAK It never took her long to darken any conversation, as from birth she was inclined to see misery in e... ELIF SHAFAK فعندما لا تفضي لأحد بشيء استثنائي، فأنه سيعتبر أن كل شي... ELIF SHAFAK Mourning is like virginity. You should give it to the one who deserves it most. ELIF SHAFAK That was the one thing about the rain that likened it to sorrow: You did your best to remain untouch... ELIF SHAFAK It is so demanding to be born into a house full of women, where everyone loves you so overwhelmingly... ELIF SHAFAK We're stuck. We're stuck between the East and the West. Between the past and the future. On the one ... ELIF SHAFAK Imagination was a dangerously captivating magic for those compelled to be realistic in life, and wor... ELIF SHAFAK لا يجوز أن تلعن أي شيء يهطل من السماء.. حتى لو كان مطرا ELIF SHAFAK كل شيء يتوقف على موقفك إزاء الأمور. فإن كنت تبحث عن وحيد... ELIF SHAFAK The past lives within the present, and our ancestors breathe through our children. ELIF SHAFAK Article Five: If you have no reason or ability to accomplish anything, then just practice the art of... ELIF SHAFAK علي عكس ما يحدث في الأفلام، فإن اشارة النهاية" لا تومض �... ELIF SHAFAK إن الأغلبية الساحقة من الناس لا يفكرون مطلقاً، و الذين ... ELIF SHAFAK Either grant me the bliss of the ignorant or give me the strength to bear the knowledge. ELIF SHAFAK إن الروح بحاجة لأن ترتعش لكي تستيقظ ELIF SHAFAK إذا لم تتمكني من إيجاد سبب كي تحبي الحياة التي تعيشينها... ELIF SHAFAK You see, unlike in the movies, there is no THE END sign flashing at the end of books. When I've read... ELIF SHAFAK Tu sais, le mot FIN n'apparaît jamais quand tu termines un livre. Ce n'est pas comme au cinéma. Qu... ELIF SHAFAK ...for love loves power. That is why we can suicidally fall in love with others but can rarely recip... ELIF SHAFAK L'aube approche. Elle n'est plus qu'à quelques pas de cette zone étrange qui sépare la nuit du jo... ELIF SHAFAK Male writers are thought of as "writers" first and then "men". As for female writers, they are first... ELIF SHAFAK Con le sue strade acciottolate, le torri merlate, le gallerie ad arcate, i bovindi e i portici scolp... ELIF SHAFAK Миналото е въпрос на тълкуване. Бъдещето е илюзия. Свет... ELIF SHAFAK I like to borrow a metaphor from the great poet and mystic Rumi who talks about living like a drawin... ELIF SHAFAK Do not go with the flow. Be the flow. ELIF SHAFAK القاعد الاولي : إن الطريقة التي نري فيها الله ما هي الا �... ELIF SHAFAK Little did he know, back then, that the worth of one's faith depended not on how solid and strong it... ELIF SHAFAK Patience does not mean to passively endure. It means to be farsighted enough to trust the end result... ELIF SHAFAK البشر يميلون إلى الاستخفاف بما لايمكنهم فهمه. ص59 ELIF SHAFAK و عندما تلج دائرة الحب، تكون اللغة التي نعرفها قد عفَّى... ELIF SHAFAK