3rd July 2016 | for Creatives | writing, Zadie Smith, creative freedom |
"I think this is where the real attraction [of being a writer] lies. Not in the freedom to express oneself, but in the freedom not to. To me, writing is precisely my escape from the partial, subjective reality in which I live."
"What all writers need to be reminded of from time to time: that this thing we do, this thing we've devoted our lives to, is supposed to be fun."
"The best advertisement for your writing is your writing. Write a book that people want to read. Then another. Then another. Keep at it until the world can't ignore you anymore."
"[The airplane pilot] said, 'Why do you think I do this job? It's for the seven minutes of takeoff and the 11 minutes of landing. The computer does the rest.' And to me, that's like writing. You do it because you get this great idea, and you have the excitement of the first draft, but most of it is revision, and doing the wrong stuff, and fixing and fixing. And then, you get the landing. It's very much the same."
"Writing is a job. It isn't some special calling for the elite. It isn't some form of magic where the shaman practitioners must be deified. I'm a writer, and damn lucky to be one, but I'm no better than someone who makes toasters on an assembly line."
"Writing, for me, isn't a job; it's a lifestyle. So I treat it like that. I'm not always at the office, but I'm never done."
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