I occasionally play works by contemporary composers and for two reasons. First to discourage the composer from writing any more and secondly to remind myself how much I appreciate Beethoven.
I know I'm not a great writer. I'm an extremely gifted oral communicator, but when it comes to writing, I'm just a beginner.
It seems that so much writing is being done in the nineteenth-century model, where every connection has to be thoroughly explained.
When children draw or do rudimentary painting, the whole human being develops an interest in what is being done. This is why we should allow writing to develop from drawing.
Writing a new play shouldn't be seen as a mystery belonging to a priesthood, but as a challenge, a technical challenge, just to get into it.
It took me a couple of years after I got out of Berkeley before I dared to start writing. That academic mind-set - which was kind of shallow in my case anyway - had begun to fade.
I was going to try to get into the creative writing program at Berkeley; it's just that the acting thing worked out.
If I'm writing books, I'm a 'New York Times' bestseller - how do I do it all? I don't know.
I think I would have a better time writing films rather than directing.
You become a better writer by writing. You become a better travel writer by writing about travel.
I'm a better writer than I am a singer, and I express myself easily through writing.
Reading while I'm writing ideally inspires my competitive side. When I read great writers, I want to be a better writer.
If we were writing what the fans wanted to see, Betty and Jughead would be the most linear, monotonous narrative of all time.
I'm a big believer in writing really good dialogue.
When I'm old I shall give up writing the big stuff and shall wander round the park thinking of songs.
My biggest dream from the beginning - besides Evanescence - is scoring film and writing music for film.
The biggest obstacle to professional writing is the necessity for changing a typewriter ribbon.
I had e-mail in 1984! I had an e-mail address then, which means that all you could write to was Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. There were three of us, writing to each other.
I put off writing the first Left Behind book for a year because I got invited to assist Billy Graham in his memoirs, and had we known what we were putting off for a year, we might not have put it off.
People ask me if there are going to be stories of Harry Potter as an adult. Frankly, if I wanted to, I could keep writing stories until Harry is a senior citizen, but I don't know how many people would actually want to read about a 65 year old Harry still at Hogwarts playing bingo with Ron and Hermione.
