John Le Carré: “I was always very careful to give my country second-best”
John Le Carré, talking in the Paris Review about working on his first book while commuting to work: In those days English newspapers were much too big to
Anita Desai: “I could not have spoken to anyone of what it cost me to put work aside just when it acquired momentum”
Writer Anita Desai on her writing practice, from a 2012 article, and the pain of interruption: The writing I did as an adult took place, like my childhood writing,
Scott Adams on his morning routine: “I wait for the ideas… like a hunter in a duck blind”
Like many writers, Scott Adams has a pretty strict routine that he follows when getting down to work. He describes it in a Business Insider article, and no
“Two very simple rules, a: you don’t have to write. b: you can’t do anything else.”
Raymond Chandler in a 1949 letter to Alex Barris on the discipline of writing: What do I do with myself from day to day? I write when I
John Le Carré: “I am an absolute monk about my work”
Not long ago I went through a John Le Carré phase. Mainly thanks to the new Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy movie in which Gary Oldman plays George Smiley, I read the
J. G. Ballard on writing: “Two hours in the late morning, two in the early afternoon… [then] Scotch and soda, and oblivion”
From the Paris Review interview with author J. G. Ballard: INTERVIEWER What are your daily working habits like? BALLARD Every day, five days a week. Longhand now, it’s
Martin Amis: “A tolerance for solitude isn’t anywhere near the full description of what really goes on”
From the Paris Review interview with Martin Amis: INTERVIEWER How often do you write? AMIS Every weekday. I have an office where I work. I leave the house
Isaac Bashevis Singer: “being disturbed is a part of human life”
From the Paris Review interview with Isaac Bashevis Singer: INTERVIEWER Could you tell me something about the way you work? Do you work every day, seven days a week? SINGER Well,
How Thomas Hobbes worked
From John Aubrey, A Brief Life of Thomas Hobbes, 1588-1679: As I remember, there were others likewise did preach his doctrine. This little MS treatise grew to he
“the work has been done while one slept or shopped or talked with friends”
From Graham Greene's The End of the Affair (quoted by Rachel Toor in her Chronicle of Higher Ed piece on the habits of productive writers): "I was trying