I just write what I wanted to write. I write what amuses me. It’s totally for myself. I never in my wildest dreams expected this popularity.

‚Lives‘ is one of those books I should really have written when I was younger. It is the classic childhood, adolescence, breakthrough-into-maturity book. Every beginning writer has that material – and after that, you’re not sure what you can do.

Since I have come to America, I am often asked whether my next novel will be set in America. I don’t think it will. I think I will be living in America for some time to come, but while living in America, I would like to write about Japanese society from the outside.

I often get ideas for songs on the tour bus at odd times. Like at 6am when no one is around, I’d just write.

I don’t set out to write about spirituality; I am free to do something different every time.

I would say that I’m more moved by melody, even though I love to rap.

I mean, what would I be doing if I couldn’t write? But that fortunately hasn’t proved to be the case and I can read any day. I still read a lot, and I can write any day, but much more slowly and fewer words.

Excessive literary production is a social offense.

At Cornell University, my professor of European literature, Vladimir Nabokov, changed the way I read and the way I write. Words could paint pictures, I learned from him. Choosing the right word, and the right word order, he illustrated, could make an enormous difference in conveying an image or an idea.

The writer must earn money in order to be able to live and to write, but he must by no means live and write for the purpose of making money.

I think it does Discworld good if I don’t write about it all the time: sometimes you have to get it out of your system.

I don’t know how much longer I’ll be around. I’ll probably be writing when the Lord says, ‚Maya, Maya Angelou, it’s time.‘

I started writing at the kitchen table after midnight. It took ten months to finish that first book; I sent it to a publisher and I got some kind of prize, so it was like a dream – I was surprised to find it happening.

The first real thought that I had of something that I might do was to write for car magazines, because I always had a car thing.

I shall never be ashamed of citing a bad author if the line is good.

When I write, I can shake off all my cares.

Brevity is a great charm of eloquence.

Those who have been writing literature have not been writing life.

The writing is important, but the way you say the line and the pause you give it, the facial expression – all of that is very important.

When you’re writing a novel, you don’t want the reader to come out of it voting yes or no to some question. Life is more complicated than that. Reality simply consists of different points of view.

The day when I am no more than a writer I shall cease to be a writer.

I don’t believe in ‚thinking‘ old. Although I’ve transitioned through many bodies – a baby, toddler, child, teen, young adult, mid-life and older adult – my spirit is unchanged. I support my body with exercise, my mind with reading and writing, and my spirit with the knowing that I am part of the Divine source of all life.

I no longer feel attracted to the well-made novel. I want to write the story that will zero in and give you intense, but not connected, moments of experience. I guess that’s the way I see life. People remake themselves bit by bit and do things they don’t understand.

The finest language is mostly made up of simple unimposing words.

Stand-up is hard. Or to keep it at a certain level is hard: I have no writers but me.

The discipline of the written word punishes both stupidity and dishonesty.

You have to dream intentionally. Most people dream a dream when they are asleep. But to be a writer, you have to dream while you are awake, intentionally.

I don’t do Shakespeare. I don’t talk in that kind of broken English.

Isn’t it strange that I who have written only unpopular books should be such a popular fellow?

I write all my sermons.

No, there is literally nothing on the business side that I wouldn’t sacrifice in a heartbeat to have an extra couple of hours‘ writing. Nothing.

When I’m writing, I don’t feel neurotic. So it’s better for the family if I’m working.

Frankly, I mean, sometimes the interpretations I’ve seen on some of the songs that I’ve written are a lot more interesting than the input that I put in.

My advice is this. For Christ’s sake, don’t write a book that is suitable for a kid of 12 years old, because the kids who read who are 12 years old are reading books for adults. I read all of the James Bond books when I was about 11, which was approximately the right time to read James Bond books.

For a true writer, each book should be a new beginning where he tries again for something that is beyond attainment. He should always try for something that has never been done or that others have tried and failed. Then sometimes, with great luck, he will succeed.

I don’t go off and sit down and try to write material, because then it’s contrived and forced. I just live my life, and I see things in a word or a situation or a concept, and it will create a joke for me.

If you’re waiting for the perfect moment, you’ll never write a thing because it will never arrive. I have no routine. I have no foolproof anything. There’s nothing foolproof.

I write for myself things that I’ve gone through.

Writing is a dreadful labor, yet not so dreadful as Idleness.

Wherever you write is supposed to be a little bit of a refuge, a place where you can get away from the world. The more closed in you are, the more you’re forced back on your own imagination.

Shakespeare didn’t work at all for me.

I do some kind of work, whether writing or painting or recording, on a daily basis. And it’s so essential that when I’m involved in the actual process, my so-called ‚real life‘ becomes almost incidental, which becomes worrying.

I like the sound a typewriter makes.

My priority is my books, at least at this point. What I have to do is write the narrative of this time.

I was enjoying myself writing, because I don’t know what’s going to happen when I take a ride around that corner. You don’t know at all what you’re going to find there. That can be thrilling when you read a book, especially when you’re a kid and you’re reading stories.

If I could write directly on a typewriter or a computer, I would do it. But keyboards have always intimidated me. I’ve never been able to think clearly with my fingers in that position. A pen is a much more primitive instrument. You feel that the words are coming out of your body and then you dig the words into the page.

The short words are best, and the old words are the best of all.

Modern poets talk against business, poor things, but all of us write for money. Beginners are subjected to trial by market.

It is a fact often observed, that men have written good verses under the inspiration of passion, who cannot write well under other circumstances.

I don’t think about who the audience is for my books.

Find enough clever things to say, and you’re a Prime Minister; write them down and you’re a Shakespeare.

My enthusiasm seems to cause my world to endlessly offer me cooperative, co-creating experiences. I’m willing and I’m eager, and not just about my writing – I feel the same way about staying in shape, enjoying my family, giving a lecture, or whatever it may be.

I didn’t have any agenda or plan when I started writing stuff.

One of my big goals as a human being is to continue to write what’s really happening to me, even if it’s a tough pill to swallow for people around me… I do fear that if I ever were to have someone in my life who mattered, I would second-guess every one of my lyrics.

Whenever I write a novel, music just sort of naturally slips in (much like cats do, I suppose).

So many writers don’t like to write… I like to write, and sometimes I’m afraid I like it too much, because when I get into work, I don’t want to leave it. And as a result, I’ll go for days and days and days without leaving my house.

And one more thing.

You have to be practical. So every time I say, if you want to write a novel you have to be practical, people get bored. They are disappointed. They are expecting a more dynamic, creative, artistic thing to say. What I want to say is: you have to be practical.

I don’t know if I officially proofread my father’s book, but I read it. I did get some conception of grammar in general from that.

My style has always been my own, just like my flow and style.

What I have is a malevolent curiosity. That’s what drives my need to write and what probably leads me to look at things a little askew. I do tend to take a different perspective from most people.