Writing Quotes by Fran Lebowitz

I prefer dead writers because you don't run into them at parties.

— Fran Lebowitz

“There's no equivalent to Mozart in writing.”

— Fran Lebowitz

Screenwriting is not an artform, it is a punishment from God.

— Fran Lebowitz

You should make it hard on yourself to write so you’re easier to read.

— Fran Lebowitz

My dream writing room would be the Imperial Library in Vienna.

— Fran Lebowitz

I write so slowly, I could write with my own blood and not hurt myself.

— Fran Lebowitz

I just write when fear overtakes me.

— Fran Lebowitz

If there had been a job of being a reader, I would have taken that, because I love to read and I…

— Fran Lebowitz

Not writing is probably the most exhausting profession I've ever encountered.

— Fran Lebowitz

I write a sentence a thousand times, changing it all the time to look at it in different ways.

— Fran Lebowitz

I never would start writing before midnight and I would finish at, like, seven in the morning.

— Fran Lebowitz

Writing is so hard. Why would you be a writer if you weren't really good at it? If you could be anything…

— Fran Lebowitz

The best fame is a writer's fame. It's enough to get a table at a good restaurant, but not enough to get…

— Fran Lebowitz

There is nothing more mine than my writing, nothing I'm more proprietary about.

— Fran Lebowitz

I hate writing. I will do anything to avoid it. The only way I could write less was if I was dead.

— Fran Lebowitz

Not writing is probably the most exhausting profession I've ever encountered. It takes it out of you. It's very psychically wearing not…

— Fran Lebowitz

In conversation you can use timing, a look, an inflection. But on the page all you have is commas, dashes, the amount…

— Fran Lebowitz

Contrary to what many of you may imagine, a career in letters is not without its drawbacks - chief among them the…

— Fran Lebowitz

When I'm supposed to be writing I clean my apartment, take my clothes to the laundry, get organized, make lists, do the…

— Fran Lebowitz

I have the exact opposite problem of every writer I've ever met: Every writer I've ever met writes things that are too…

— Fran Lebowitz

Writers get exactly the right amount of fame: just enough to get a good table in a restaurant but not enough so…

— Fran Lebowitz

Most writers write too much. I have the exact opposite problem. I feel I could write almost anything in a paragraph. I…

— Fran Lebowitz

I'm such a slow writer I have no need for anything as fast as a word processor. I don't need anything so…

— Fran Lebowitz

I have a real aversion to machines. I write with a pen. Then I read it to someone who writes it onto…

— Fran Lebowitz

Until I was about 7, I thought books were just there, like trees. When I learned that people actually wrote them, I…

— Fran Lebowitz

I have a hard time writing. Most writers have a hard time writing. I have a harder time than most because I'm…

— Fran Lebowitz

There are some great writers who are great talkers, but there are more great writers who are not great talkers. People seem…

— Fran Lebowitz

Should novels generally be 600 pages? No, they should not. Half of writing, maybe 3/4 of writing, is editing. This seems to…

— Fran Lebowitz

While clothes with pictures and/or writing on them are not entirely an invention of the modern age, they are an unpleasant indication…

— Fran Lebowitz

When I was very little, say five or six, I became aware of the fact that people wrote books. Before that, I…

— Fran Lebowitz

For the movie review columns, I always knew exactly what I was going to write about - the movies.

— Fran Lebowitz

When Toni Morrison said 'write the book you want to read,' she didn't mean everybody.

— Fran Lebowitz

Writers have problems writing sex scenes, because writing one really well is pornography.

— Fran Lebowitz

Writing pornography is deadly, nothing duller. I mean a toll-taker has a more exciting life than a pornographer.

— Fran Lebowitz

How do you know if your child is a writer? Your obstetrician holds his stethoscope to your abdomen and only hears excuses.

— Fran Lebowitz

Instead of writing it wrong six times and then writing it right, I think it wrong six times and then write it…

— Fran Lebowitz

If you feel the urge to write, just lie down and read a book: it will pass.

— Fran Lebowitz

[On the writers she admires:] I prefer dead writers, because I don't see them at parties.

— Fran Lebowitz

I'm not a nervous person. I'm not afraid to be on TV. I'm only afraid when I write. When I'm at my…

— Fran Lebowitz

I think writing for me has always been a matter of fear. Writing is fear and not writing is fear. I am…

— Fran Lebowitz