Conditions Quote by Seamus Heaney

Harvard meant a lot in my writing life from the beginning, even though I didnt actually do much composition on the spot.

— Seamus Heaney

I knew I wanted to do something creative, and you don't necessarily go to Harvard to do that. It's not the best choice for…

— Gabrielle Zevin

Understood what the struggle was about. My mother. Couldn't read or write, but she had more sense than many a graduate from Harvard.

— Al Lewis

I had an insanely long commute - New York to D.C. - when I worked at 'National Geographic.' I hate to waste time, so…

— Charles M. Blow

I spent four of my five years at Stanford writing a novel I was unable to sell.

— Scott Turow

Since I had started to break down all my writing and get rid of all facility and try to make instead of describe, writing…

— Ernest Hemingway

I felt a failure because I couldn't sustain myself from what I earned from my writing. My day jobs were what mattered, and it…

— Sandra Cisneros

I instantly chucked my academic ambitions and began writing fiction full-time.

— Peter Straub

For several decades, I believed it was necessary to be extraordinary if you wanted to write, and since I wasn't, I gave up my…

— Diane Setterfield

I really had to decide why I was writing. I had no interest in going back to law; I very briefly - for about…

— Ben Fountain

The only reason I became a writer was so I could exist on a piece of paper.

— Jose Antonio Vargas

I wanted to be a writer. I wanted to say something about home.

— Ernest Gaines