Writer Quotes by Anne Tyler

I write because I want to have more than one life.

— Anne Tyler

For me, writing something down was the only road out.

— Anne Tyler

I spend about a year between novels

— Anne Tyler

I save the best of myself for novels, and I believe it shows

— Anne Tyler

When I read, I'm purely a reader

— Anne Tyler

“For me, writing was the only way out.”

— Anne Tyler

I didn't really choose to write; I more or less fell into it.

— Anne Tyler

My writing day has grown shorter as I've aged, although it seems to produce the same number of pages.

— Anne Tyler

I never think about the actual process of writing. I suppose I have a superstition about examining it too closely.

— Anne Tyler

The hardest novel to write was Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant.

— Anne Tyler

I forget a book as soon as I finish writing it, which is not always a good thing

— Anne Tyler

The one ironclad rule is that I have to try. I have to walk into my writing room and pick up my…

— Anne Tyler

Once your mind is caught on the right snag, there's nothing so hard about the mechanics of writing.

— Anne Tyler

I don't type [when I write] because . . . I often have the feeling that everything flows directly from my right hand.

— Anne Tyler

I'll write maybe one long paragraph describing the events, then a page or two breaking the events into chapters, and then reams…

— Anne Tyler

I think it must be very hard to be one of the new young writers who are urged to put themselves forward…

— Anne Tyler

But what I hope for from a book - either one that I write or one that I read - is transparency.…

— Anne Tyler

I can never tell ahead of time which book will give me trouble - some balk every step of the way, others…

— Anne Tyler

“I was born with the impression that what happened in books was much more reasonable, and interesting, and real, in some ways,…

— Anne Tyler

“She passed her New York Reviews on to Troy without giving them a glance; she told him she thought there was something…

— Anne Tyler

I just want to be told a story, and I want to believe I'm living that story, and I don't give a…

— Anne Tyler

“I was born with the impression that what happened in books was much for reasonable, and interesting, and real, in some ways,…

— Anne Tyler

I have spent so long erecting partitions around the part of me that writes - learning how to close the door on…

— Anne Tyler

“Reading is the first to go," my mother used to say, meaning that it was a luxury the brain dispensed with under…

— Anne Tyler

Mostly it's lies, writing novels. You set out to tell an untrue story and you try to make it believable, even to…

— Anne Tyler

I would advise any beginning writer to write the first drafts as if no one else will ever read them - without…

— Anne Tyler

It's true that writing is a solitary occupation, but you would be surprised at how much companionship a group of imaginary characters…

— Anne Tyler

For me, writing something down was the only road out...I hated childhood, and spent it sitting behind a book waiting for adulthood…

— Anne Tyler

I do write long, long character notes - family background, history, details of appearance - much more than will ever appear in…

— Anne Tyler

Reading any piece of writing aloud is an acid test, particularly when it comes to dialogue. There were writers I'd always admired…

— Anne Tyler