Amy Tan Quotes About Writing

Quotes about: Writing

• Writing is an extreme privilege but it's also a gift. It's a gift to yourself and it's a gift of giving a story to someone.

  Amy Tan

  Writing, Giving, Stories

  "Author of The Joy Luck Club". The Academy of Achievement Interview, www.achievement.org. June 28, 1996.

• Writing what you wished was the most dangerous form of wishful thinking.

  Amy Tan

  Writing, Thinking, Form

  Amy Tan (2001). “The Bonesetter's Daughter”, p.25, Penguin

• It's a luxury being a writer, because all you ever think about is life.

  Amy Tan

  Writing, Thinking, Luxury

  "Author of The Joy Luck Club". The Academy of Achievement, www.achievement.org. June 28, 1996.

• I thought I was clever enough to write as well as these people and I didn't realize that there is something called originality and your own voice.

  Amy Tan

  Clever, Writing, Voice

  "Author of The Joy Luck Club". The Academy of Achievement, www.achievement.org. June 28, 1996.

• I AM A PERSON WHO THINKS ABOUT THE NATURE OF THE SPIRIT WHEN I WRITE. I THINK ABOUT WHAT CAN'T BE KNOWN AND ONLY IMAGINED. I OFTEN SENSE A SPIRIT OR FORCE OR MEANING BEYOND MYSELF. I LEAVE IT OPEN AS TO WHAT THE SPIRIT IS, BUT I CONTINUE TO MAKE GUESSES.

  Amy Tan

  Writing, Thinking, Spirit

• We all hate moral ambiguity in some sense, and yet it is also absolutely necessary. In writing a story, it is the place where I begin.

  Amy Tan

  Motivation, Hate, Inspiration

• In [writing] fiction, every sentence is its own reward.

  Amy Tan

  Writing, Fiction, Rewards

• The muse appears at the point in my writing when I sense a subtle shift, a nudge to move over, and everything cracks open, the writing is freed, the lanuage is full, resources are plentiful, ideas pour forth, and to be frank, some of these ideas surprise me. It seems as thought the universe is my friend and is helping me write, its hand over mine.

  Amy Tan

  Moving, Writing, Ideas

  Amy Tan (2003). “The Opposite of Fate: Memories of a Writing Life”, p.167, Penguin

• I wanted to write stories for myself. At first it was purely an aesthetic thing about craft. I just wanted to become good at the art of something. And writing was very private.

  Amy Tan

  Art, Writing, Stories

  "Author of The Joy Luck Club". The Academy of Achievement Interview, www.achievement.org. June 28, 1996.

• You can get sucked into the idea that, 'Gosh, this is impressive. Maybe I should do this. It will look good.' Or 'I'll write like this because it will impress that critic.'

  Amy Tan

  Writing, Ideas, Looks

  "Author of The Joy Luck Club". The Academy of Achievement Interview, www.achievement.org. June 28, 1996.

• I think we often write because we feel a loneliness, and people read for the same reason, and then they come away feeling a little less lonely.

  Amy Tan

  Lonely, Loneliness, Writing

  Source: www.pbs.org

• I started a second novel seven times and I had to throw them away.

  Amy Tan

  Writing, Seven, Novel

  "Author of The Joy Luck Club". The Academy of Achievement, www.achievement.org. June 28, 1996.

• I am fascinated by language in daily life: the way it can evoke an emotion, a visual image, a complex idea, or a simple truth.

  Amy Tan

  Writing, Simple, Ideas

  Amy Tan (2003). “The Opposite of Fate: Memories of a Writing Life”, p.181, Penguin

• I also thought of playing improvisational jazz and I did take lessons for a while. At first I tried to write fiction by making up things that were completely alien to my life.

  Amy Tan

  Life Lesson, Writing, Fiction

  "Author of The Joy Luck Club". The Academy of Achievement Interview, www.achievement.org. June 28, 1996.

• You write a book and you hope somebody will go out and pay $24.95 for what you've just said. I think books were my salvation. Books saved me from being miserable.

  Amy Tan

  Book, Writing, Thinking

  "Author of The Joy Luck Club". The Academy of Achievement, www.achievement.org. June 28, 1996.

• I feel I've always been writing about self-identity. How do we become who we are? So I'm just writing from experience what's concerned me.

  Amy Tan

  Writing, Self, Identity

  Source: www.pbs.org

• You can never be an artist if your work comes without effort. That is the problem with modernink from a bottle. You do not have to think. You simply write what is swimming on the top of your brain. And the top is nothing but pond scum, dead leaves, and mosquito spawn.

  Amy Tan

  Education, Reading, Writing

  Amy Tan (2001). “The Bonesetter's Daughter”, p.142, Penguin

• Sometimes you change to survive, and some things you don't give up, or you're too prideful, and then you think well, what's pride? Is it a good thing? Maybe it's a bad thing. That's what I look at in my life. It's always a question in my life I look at, and I never find the answer, because if I did, probably I wouldn't have books to write.

  Amy Tan

  Giving Up, Book, Don't Give Up

  Source: www.pbs.org

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