Don Roff
42 quotes
Biography
"Nothing's a better cure for writer's block than to eat ice cream right out of the carton."
"Always mystify, torture, mislead, and surprise the audience as much as possible."
"The recipe for great art has always been misery and a good bowel movement."
"A writer always writes."
"Writing a story, regardless of length, begins always with a single word."
"The best writers I've read possess oodles of self-doubt, yet claw their way up with each work and remain humble. Boastful ones, not so much."
"Creativity and intelligence, rather than violence, are the best problem solvers."
"I've found the best way to revise your own work is to pretend that somebody else wrote it and then to rip the living shit out of it."
"A migraine is the cockblock of writing."
"If you treat your characters like people, they'll reward you by being fully developed individuals."
"If you focus on the humanity of your stories, your characters, then the horror will be stronger, scarier. Without the humanity, the horror becomes nothing more than a tawdry parlor trick. All flash and no magic, and worst of all, no heart."
"When you're writing what you love, it's the most fun you can have with your clothing still on, unless of course, you write naked."
"If you write a kid's book only for kids, then you have failed."
"We often wait for that knock of opportunity, though I've found it's better to just grab a chainsaw and cut open your own fucking door."
"Even if you're in the thick of revising another work, write something new. Something small. It's important to keep telling yourself stories."
"You're never as good a writer as you think you are, and you're never as bad. Just keep reading and writing, writing, writing."
"I write every day whether somebody pays me or not. I write every day whether or not self-doubt is kicking my ass. It's what writers must do."
"I write fiction. It may have mystery, it may have horror, it may have fantasy, it may have love, but like life, it's all the same genre."
"You cannot write your character until you know how he or she thinks, until you know what their philosophy is in the world that they occupy."
"Keep being bold on the page, and in life, and people cannot ignore you forever."
"Authors must spend months, years making fantasy believable in a single work while reality runs rampant and complete chaos elsewhere."
"Write about the thing that scares you most or your most private confession and you'll never have a problem coming up with decent fiction."
"A day of bad writing is always better than a day of no writing."
"Audiences will admire your character’s strength but connect with them through their weakness."
"Fear and self-doubt are the deadly enemies of creativity. Don’t invite either into your mind."