English - Author | December 20, 1951 -
I think you have to learn for yourself how to write. I'm slightly mystified by creative writing courses - God love them - because I can't understand how you can explain a process that I find so baffling.
Kate Atkinson
LoveGodYourselfCreativeWriting
Ethics are not necessarily to do with being law-abiding. I am very interested in the moral path, doing the right thing.
PathI AmEthicsDoingMoralRight
Not being published would be great. When I say that to other writers they look at me as if I'm totally insane.
GreatMeLookSayBeingInsane
The great thing about writing compared to life is getting to tie things up.
LifeGreatWritingTieUpThings
My father was an autodidact. It wasn't a middle-class house. Shopkeepers are aspirant. He paid for me to go to private school. He was denied an education - he had a horrible childhood. He got a place at a grammar school and wasn't allowed to go.
EducationFatherChildhoodSchoolMe
I usually start writing a novel that I then abandon. When I say abandon, I don't think any writer ever abandons anything that they regard as even a half-good sentence. So you recycle. I mean, I can hang on to a sentence for several years and then put it into a book that's completely different from the one it started in.
WritingStartBookThinkYouI Can
I don't have goals when writing books, apart from getting to the end. I have rather vague ideas about how I want things to feel, I'm big on ambience. I have a title, a beginning and a probable ending and go from there.
GoalsBeginningIdeasWritingEnding
My work is not my life. I started writing quite late, I didn't have that 'writing is everything, my art is all.' You have to be able to recognise the difference between the two.
LifeWorkArtWritingMy LifeYou
Probably not needing to be published would give me more time to think about a book.
TimeMeBookThinkMoreGive Me
It's been said that the men in my books have been absent, or weak, or creepy.
MenSaidWeakBeenBooksAbsent
I've always loved mysteries, the something there that you didn't know, and with 'Case Histories' I just decide to make that more up-front.
LovedYouKnowMoreAlwaysDecide
When I'm writing, my neural pathways get blocked. I can't read. I can barely hold a conversation without forgetting words and names. I wish I could wear the same clothes and eat the same food each day.
FoodDayWordsWritingWishClothes
Copyright © 2024 QuotesDict Kate Atkinson quotes