Isaac Bashevis Singer Quotes about Writing

Life is God's novel. Let him write it.

When I was a little boy, they called me a liar, but now that I am grown up, they call me a writer.

The waste basket is the writer's best friend.

A good writer is basically a story teller, not a scholar or a redeemer of mankind.

Three characteristics a work of fiction must possess in order to be successful: 1. It must have a precise and suspenseful plot. 2. The author must feel a passionate urge to write it. 3. He must have the conviction, or at least the illusion, that he is the only one who can handle this particular theme.

Every creator painfully experiences the chasm between his inner vision and its ultimate expression. The chasm is never completely bridged. We all have the conviction, perhaps illusory, that we have much more to say than appears on the paper.

Originality is not seen in single words or even in sentences. Originality is the sum total of a man's thinking or his writing.

Children read books, not reviews. They don't give a hoot about critics.

A story to me means a plot where there is some surprise... Because this is how life is full of surprises.

When a writer tries to explain too much, he's out of time before he begins.

A story to me must have some surprise...I must have a passion to write the story.

Writing has power, but its power has no vector. Writers can stir the mind, but they can't direct it. Time changes things, God changes things, the dictators change things, but writers can't change anything.

We write not only for children but also for their parents. They, too, are serious children.