Life can't defeat a writer who is in love with writing for life itself is a writer's lover until death.

After the writer's death reading his journal is like receiving a long letter.

Salman Rushdie indeed any writer who abuses the prophet or indeed any prophet under Islamic law the sentence for that is actually death.

I was not encouraged to follow the career of a writer because my parents thought that I was going to starve to death. They thought nobody can make a living from being a writer in Brazil. They were not wrong.

My dad and mom divorced when I was around ten and I didn't live with him after that though he was close by and we saw each other weekly. I wasn't really aware that he was a writer I didn't start reading his writing until I was about fifteen. It occurred to me then that my dad was kind of special he's still one of my favorite writers.

My dad told me that no one could ever make it as a writer that my chances were equivalent to winning the lottery - which was good for me because I like to have something to prove.

My dad was the baby. When he was born they were already successful. They sent him to business school - he probably would have loved to have been a poet or a writer or something and he was very creative.

My dad was a sports writer when I was younger and then he became just a general columnist. But I grew up with him literally getting into brawls with football coaches.

My dad is a bank president and my mom was an accountant and they didn't think that seeking the life of a freelance writer was very practical you see. Of course I was just as determined to do it.

My dad was an editor and a writer and that's actually what I aspired to be.

When I started writing I did have some idealised notion of my dad as a writer. But I have less and less of a literary rivalry with him as I've gone on. I certainly don't feel I need his approval although maybe that's because I'm confident that I've got it.

I'm a dad I'm a husband I'm an activist I'm a writer and I'm just a student of the world.

It may not be the most popular but there is a place for it. I think about the kind of music I love acoustic melodic and I guess it kind of took a bit of courage on my part to think I could be one of those songwriters.

I think what I would say to my younger self and probably to younger just starting-out writers is that a lot of times you're just afraid to put yourself out there and it's uncomfortable because it's working up the courage to do something to push yourself to do those things.

I'm a writer of faith who worries about the intolerance of religion. I look at the past and fear we haven't learned from it. I believe that humanity is capable of evil as well as great acts of courage and goodness. I have hope. Deep down I believe in the human spirit although sometimes that belief is shaken.

When somebody who makes movies for a living - either as an actor writer producer or director - lives to be a certain age you have to admire them. It is an act of courage to make a film - a courage for which you are not prepared in the rest of life. It is very hard and very destructive. But we do it because we love it.

L.A.'s cool I had a run with it to where it just pretty much wore me out. I love the weather and I have great friends there great family but I really cannot take a lot of the culture. Like Nashville where everybody's a songwriter everybody out there is an actor.

All literature consists of whatever the writer thinks is cool. The reader will like the book to the degree that he agrees with the writer about what's cool.

I never set out to become 'famous.' I mean when you're 14 you think 'I'm gonna become a writer and people will want my autograph and that'll be cool ' but you grow up and you learn that's just not how the world works. I resigned myself to the fact that I would probably never be published and if I did it probably wouldn't be a big deal.

Some of the hip-hop stuff people get into is exciting because there's a passion and there's something to explain to a more mainstream audience so you get these passionate writers who want to express their love for rap and hip-hop which is cool.

Melanie Fiona is a singer a songwriter she's a super-girl. I can be silly goofy really chilled. She's like your cool chill girlfriend sister-friend. I'm just like everybody else.

The cool thing about being a songwriter or a writer I guess in general you can take on a lot of different things experience a lot of different things just by writing about them.

I don't think generally speaking people become writers because they were the really good really cool attractive kid in class. I'll be honest. This is our revenge for people who were much better looking and more popular than us. I was a bit like that I suppose.

I think people appreciate a songwriter who shows different sides. The whole angst thing is cool but if that's all you've got it's just boring. Everything I write whether it's happy or sad has a sense of humor to it.