Always Quote by Rose Tremain

One of the ways in which writers most show their inventiveness is in the things they tell us about how they write. Generally speaking,…

— Philip Pullman

When I start to write, I don't have any plan at all. I just wait for the story to come.

— Haruki Murakami

I envy those writers who outline their novels, who know where they're going. But I find writing is a process of discovery.

— Jay McInerney

I never plan my novels because if I know what is going to happen, it bores me rigid. I let the story tell itself.

— James Herbert

I know some writers are meticulous planners, but I'm not one of them.

— Gail Honeyman

I don't plan the books ahead of time. It's not like Harry Potter. I don't work in a straight line. I don't write with…

— Diana Gabaldon

Writers 'get started' the day they are born. The minds they bring into the world with them are the amazing machines their stories will…

— Lois Duncan

I think one of the biggest mistakes you can make as a writer is to follow your initial [writing] plan too stringently. A story…

— Patrick Rothfuss

I know very few writers who outline fully before they start. It just doesn't seem possible to do, because so many things don't come…

— Tom Perrotta

I like to be surprised. The best writing is when it defies me, when it starts going a different way than I had planned.

— Wally Lamb

I'm not a writer that writes every day. I just kind of have ideas. I jot them down when I have them, and when…

— Dee Rees

I'm not the sort of writer who can plan out things. Mostly I have no idea where I'm going.

— Chang-Rae Lee