I intend to keep writing Christmas songs. There's still a lot more about Christmas that can be captured and feel like old-time Christmas. A lot of the traditions haven't been explained in song.

Writing is no dying art form in America because most published writers here accept the wisdom and the necessity of encouraging the talent that follows in their footsteps.

I took up writing to escape the drudgery of that every day cubicle kind of war.

I don't know much about creative writing programs. But they're not telling the truth if they don't teach one that writing is hard work and two that you have to give up a great deal of life your personal life to be a writer.

Books and all forms of writing are terror to those who wish to suppress the truth.

Writing doesn't come real easy to me. I couldn't write a novel in a year. It wouldn't be readable. I don't let an editor even look at it until the second year because it would just scare them. I just have to trust that all these scraps and dead-ends will find a way.

I focus on the writing and let the rest of the process take care of itself. I've learned to trust my own instincts and I've also learned to take risks.

David was the kind of guy who was totally supportive of the actors and instructed the writing staff to trust the actor's instincts since after all it's the actors playing the character.

I teach for the Book Trust which promotes reading and writing with children.

One of the things I had to learn as a writer was to trust the act of writing. To put myself in the position of writing to find out what I was writing.

When there's writing that you really trust it's very freeing as an artist.

You become a better writer by writing. You become a better travel writer by writing about travel.

When I began writing that I was able and did travel and met some fascinating people and also uncovered some history which has not been discovered before.

My favorite travel pastime is writing music either with my guitar or on my computer.

Writing allows me the time to travel and see the world which is what I always wanted to do. I'd really like to have been Sir Richard Francis Burton but it's the wrong century.

My writing is a combination of three elements. The first is travel: not travel like a tourist but travel as exploration. The second is reading literature on the subject. The third is reflection.

Occasionally I find a travel book that is both illuminating and entertaining where vivid writing and research replace self-indulgence and sloppy prose.

Writing and travel broaden your ass if not your mind and I like to write standing up.

In our time political speech and writing are largely the defense of the indefensible.

Substitute 'damn' every time you're inclined to write 'very' your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.

When you read a piece of writing that you admire send a note of thanks to the author.

I take mentoring very seriously and I am on the board of an organization called Girls Write Now where we match teen girls and writing mentors because it changes their lives.

Writing a teen character is something I wanted to try again for a long time!

When I was a teen I thought I would have to choose between my writing or my music or my art but it turns out it's a difficult juggling game but I can do all of them.