“When I stop working the rest of the day is posthumous. I'm only really alive when I'm writing.”

“I feel more alive when I'm writing than I do at any other time--except maybe when I'm making love.”

“I don't know if Native Son is a good book or a bad book. And I don't know if the book I'm working on now will be a good book or a bad book. And I really don't care. The mere writing of it will be more fun and a deeper satisfaction than any praise or blame from anybody. I feel that I'm lucky to be alive to write novels today, when the whole world is caught in the pangs of war and change.”

“I'm a classic example of all humorists — only funny when I'm working.”

“I'm one of those people who has to write. If I don't write, I feel itchy and depressed and cranky. So everybody's glad when I write and stop complaining already.”

“When I'm writing, I know I'm doing the thing I was born to do.”

“I see myself as a novelist, period. I mean, the material I work with is what is classified as science fiction and fantasy, and I really don't think about these things when I'm writing. I'm just thinking about telling a story and developing my characters.”

“I write when I'm inspired, and I see to it that I'm inspired at nine o'clock every morning.”

“While I'm writing, I'm far away;
and when I come back, I've gone.”

“I still have a struggle reading [dyslexia] and so I don't read much... Probably the only reason I'm painter is because I couldn't read yet I love to write, but when I write I know what I'm writing, but when I'm reading I can’t see it, because it goes from all sides of the page at once. But that's very good for printmaking.”