There was a chance for me to write one song for the section where Elvis sat in his black leather outfit and sang the old hits. At eight oclock the next morning I had written Memories.

Nobody wants to read about the honest lawyer down the street who does real estate loans and wills. If you want to sell books you have to write about the interesting lawyers - the guys who steal all the money and take off. That's the fun stuff.

There are three reasons for becoming a writer: the first is that you need the money the second that you have something to say that you think the world should know the third is that you can't think what to do with the long winter evenings.

We are used to female writers who use their private lives as unmitigated material being somewhat hormonal this somehow 'excuses' what might be seen as a highly unfeminine ability to turn their personal upsets into money.

I turned down twelve films last year... Huge money films but I had no respect for the writer or the work.

All I wanted to do was write - at the time poems and prose too. I guess my ambition was simply to make money however I could to keep myself going in some modest way and I didn't need much I was unmarried at the time no children.

I think writing really helps you heal yourself. I think if you write long enough you will be a healthy person. That is if you write what you need to write as opposed to what will make money or what will make fame.

A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.

The writer must earn money in order to be able to live and to write but he must by no means live and write for the purpose of making money.

We go to school to learn to work hard for money. I write books and create products that teach people how to have money work hard for them.

I wasn't always a writer. When I went to college and majored in fine arts I was a painter. Then I was a stay-at-home mom.

But the fact is I'm not work-identified. I'm not a lawyer or a writer. I'm a mom and I'm a woman and that's the kind of people I want to see in books in the starring role.

I've always been a writer because I've always been a student. My mom's a retired professor so I come from a very academic background. I love writing you know?

My mom was dying for me to write a book she was my biggest advocate.

I had always loved to write and my mom was my editor for my school papers.

I like to write and draw and paint and my mom's an artist so I think I get caught up in thinking 'I'm afraid it's gonna be bad ' and it's hard for me to start sometimes.

I don't practice but I am still officially in paediatrics. I keep in touch with journals and I have a very good data bank of medical information and there is a key thing for a writer knowing where to go. I know where to go to get the information that I need.

I lost my second marriage because of drinking and I loved the woman very much. But I thought I needed booze to write. I'm glad I was disabused.

For after my marriage I had made various attempts to write fiction. They were clearly failures.

If I felt in the event of a royal wedding inspired to write about people coming together in marriage or civil partnership I would just be grateful to have an idea for the poem. And if I didn't I'd ignore it.

My parents had an arranged marriage as did so many other people when I was growing up. My father came and had a life in the United States one way and my mother had a different one and I was very aware of those things. I continue to wonder about it and I will continue to write about it.

For me it's also - the music is equally as important. I mean I think as somebody who writes music there just has to sort of be the marriage between both.

Love is the answer to everything. It's the only reason to do anything. If you don't write stories you love you'll never make it. If you don't write stories that other people love you'll never make it.

Love. Fall in love and stay in love. Write only what you love and love what you write. The key word is love. You have to get up in the morning and write something you love something to live for.