In America the race goes to the loud the solemn the hustler. If you think you're a great writer you must say that you are.

The great thing about being a print journalist is that you are permitted to duck. Cameramen get killed while the writers are flat on the floor. A war correspondent for the BBC dedicated his memoir to 50 fallen colleagues and I guarantee you they were all taking pictures. I am only alive because I am such a chicken.

The creations of a great writer are little more than the moods and passions of his own heart given surnames and Christian names and sent to walk the earth.

I am hoping that I can be known as a great writer and actor some day rather than a sex symbol.

The great fun in my life has been getting up every morning and rushing to the typewriter because some new idea has hit me.

There are events which are so great that if a writer has participated in them his obligation is to write truly rather than assume the presumption of altering them with invention.

I think young writers should get other degrees first social sciences arts degrees or even business degrees. What you learn is research skills a necessity because a lot of writing is about trying to find information.

For a country to have a great writer is like having a second government. That is why no regime has ever loved great writers only minor ones.

It is not often that someone comes along who is a true friend and a good writer.

The good parts of a book may be only something a writer is lucky enough to overhear or it may be the wreck of his whole damn life and one is as good as the other.

A good writer possesses not only his own spirit but also the spirit of his friends.

Stephen King in many respects is a wonderful writer. He has made a contribution. People in the future will be able to pick up Stephen King's books and learn a lot about who we were by reading those books.

I can count all the ways in which being a mother has enriched my understanding of the world of character my sense of the future and my attachment to it. I can't imagine what kind of writer I'd be if I didn't have my kids.

The fact is that all writers create their precursors. Their work modifies our conception of the past just as it is bound to modify the future.

I have no agenda except to be funny. Neither I or the writers profess to offer any worldly wisdom.

Movies don't look hard but figuring it out getting the shape of it getting everybody's character right and having it be funny make sense and be romantic it's creating a puzzle. Yes having been a writer for so long I have an awareness of when things are going awry but it doesn't mean I know how to fix them.

It's funny in a way the actor is a writer. It's not like the two things are so separate as to be like apples and oranges. The writer and the actor are one.

Who knew Rob Lowe was funny? On 'Parks and Rec ' we've got some of the funniest comedy writers some of the funniest comedians in the world working there. And if anything we don't just effuse to one another and be like 'Oh Rob Lowe's really funny ' if he wasn't.

We all know funny people who can't get it down on the page - even funny writers who can't get it down on the page.

We've got a bunch of new writers now who tell me they grew up watching The Simpsons. It's bizarre and they're writing some very funny stuff.

It's funny. People often compare me to other humor essayists. They're usually quite nice comparisons I will accept those gladly. But I am always sort of appalled at the idea of being lumped with other more chick-y female writers. And the truth is probably that neither comparison is accurate.

Some of the writers I admire who seem very very funny and very emotional to me can develop a closeness with the reader without giving too much of themselves away. Lorrie Moore comes to mind as does David Sedaris. When they write the reader thinks that they're being trusted as a friend.

As a writer or as a filmmaker you have to present yourself and part of what yourself is is what you're interested in or what you think is funny or what you think is sad or what you think is horrible.

I don't hate humanity and I'm not interested in people who do. Although it's funny actually some of my favorite writers really do. Like Martin Amis. My dirty secret. 'London Fields' is one of my favorite books ever. And it's indefensible! But he's so funny... I forgive him everything.