Alan Ball
Alan Ball

I think all writers are armchair psychologists to some degree or another, and I think a character's sexuality is fascinating. It's a great way to really get at the root of their identity, because it's such a personal thing.

Alan Lightman
Alan Lightman

All writers have roots they draw from - travel, work, family. My roots are in science and it is fertile ground for fiction.

Alex Flinn
Alex Flinn

I was painfully shy, and I had tremendous difficulty making friends. So, lacking friends, I watched other people. Watching is something all writers must do, and it was in junior high that I learned to do it.

Andrew Shaffer
Andrew Shaffer

Every published writer, myself included, was at one time unpublished. All writers know what rejection feels like.

Caroline Leavitt
Caroline Leavitt

All writers know how important a good title is. It's the first thing readers see, along with a knock-your-socks-off cover - a seductive 'come hither' for the story within.

Chad Harbach
Chad Harbach

I mean, first, almost all writers these days teach because they don't make enough money publishing to live on, to support themselves - people like Tobias Wolff, Anne Beattie, Amy Hempel, Stuart Dybek; a lot of short story writers, for one thing.

Christopher Koch
Christopher Koch

All writers are obviously neurotic... For various reasons, writers retreat into an imaginary world because they find ordinary life rather difficult or boring or both.

Claire Tomalin
Claire Tomalin

All writers behave badly. All people behave badly.

Darin Strauss
Darin Strauss

All writers have their own pet commandments.

Dorothea Benton Frank
Dorothea Benton Frank

If you want to know why all writers are a little crazy read 'The Midnight Disease' by Alice W. Flaherty. She talks about the drive to write, writer's block, and the creative brain. I know what's wrong with me!