I'm a writer, and the subject is less important than the act of writing itself. — Jess Walter Copy Share Image
There was a time when self-promotion was considered so verboten, especially for authors. — Jess Walter Copy Share Image
Often, the fact that I haven't done something as a writer is all the reason I need to try it. — Jess Walter Copy Share Image
“A writer needs four things to achieve greatness, Pasquale: desire, disappointment, and the sea.” — Jess Walter Copy Share Image
I'm a professional. So before I published any novels, I'd always been writing stories. — Jess Walter Copy Share Image
The first seven years that I wrote fiction, I sent out stories and a novel and made a total of $25. — Jess Walter Copy Share Image
Because I'm a novelist, I think in terms of structure. The way I keep going is through structure. It's what inspires me… — Jess Walter Copy Share Image
A writer needs four things to achieve greatness, Pasquale: desire, disappointment, and the sea.” “That’s only three.” Alvis finished his wine. “You… — Jess Walter Copy Share Image
For me, movies and television are interesting because they are the dominant storytelling form of our time. My first love will always… — Jess Walter Copy Share Image
Forget being 'discovered.' All you can do is write. If you write well enough, and are stubborn enough to embrace failure, and… — Jess Walter Copy Share Image
The first fiction I ever wrote was short stories. I was writing short stories in my late teens and early twenties, and… — Jess Walter Copy Share Image
Without sounding overly sentimental about the process, I'd say trying to describe how you tend to conceive of a book is like… — Jess Walter Copy Share Image
I think the path to becoming a writer has become more through the novel. It's easier to get a novel published than… — Jess Walter Copy Share Image
My writing regimen is not very regimented. I tend to be a binge writer, working sometimes in the morning and sometimes all… — Jess Walter Copy Share Image
“First, her father had a minor stroke, giving Claire a glimpse of his mortality and, by extension, her own. And then she… — Jess Walter Copy Share Image
I don't know that any writing comes easily, but I certainly get more immersed in novels. I don't think the routine is… — Jess Walter Copy Share Image
I pretty much drink a cup of coffee, write in my journal for a while, and then sit at a computer in… — Jess Walter Copy Share Image
My cure for writer's block is to step away from the thing I'm stuck on, usually a novel, and write something totally… — Jess Walter Copy Share Image
It's once I discover the people inside that the story really gets going, and then the formal invention becomes less important. It's… — Jess Walter Copy Share Image
I probably would have gone the M.F.A. route except I was a dad at 19, and it made more sense to go… — Jess Walter Copy Share Image
I wake at 5 or 5:30 most mornings, make myself a latte and grab a cookie, write until 10 or 11, go… — Jess Walter Copy Share Image
I cling to the idea that Herman Melville had to work at the end of his career watching ships in a dock,… — Jess Walter Copy Share Image
In seventh grade, with some vague sense that I wanted to be a writer, I crouched in the junior high school library… — Jess Walter Copy Share Image
I think suspense should be like any other color on a writer's palette. I suppose I'm in the minority but I think… — Jess Walter Copy Share Image
For many people it's Facebook, or sports on TV, whatever it is. I have my own demons that I battle. But whatever they are,… — Jess Walter Copy Share
Without sounding overly sentimental about the process, I'd say trying to describe how you tend to conceive of a book is like describing how… — Jess Walter Copy Share
For me, movies and television are interesting because they are the dominant storytelling form of our time. My first love will always be fiction,… — Jess Walter Copy Share
In seventh grade, with some vague sense that I wanted to be a writer, I crouched in the junior high school library stacks to… — Jess Walter Copy Share
“There would seem to be nothing more obvious, more tangible and palpable than the present moment. And yet it eludes us completely. All the… — Jess Walter Copy Share
People sometimes ask who I would cast in my books and I never have any idea. I don't think I could ever write a… — Jess Walter Copy Share
“A writer needs four things to achieve greatness, Pasquale: desire, disappointment, and the sea.” — Jess Walter Copy Share
“And Pasquale forced himself to look away from her then. It was like prying a magnet off steel, but he did it: he turned… — Jess Walter Copy Share
I cling to the idea that Herman Melville had to work at the end of his career watching ships in a dock, as a… — Jess Walter Copy Share
Maybe every couple lived in the gaps between conversations, unable to say the important things for fear they had already been said, or couldn't… — Jess Walter Copy Share
“How do you think it should end?” Young Pasquale considered the question. “Well, instead of going back to America during the war, he could… — Jess Walter Copy Share
