Others indeed may talk and write and fight about liberty and make an outward pretence to it but the free-thinker alone is truly free.

If you write a novel alone you sit and you weave a little narrative. And it's O.K. but it's of no account.

The writer is all alone.

Volume depends precisely on the writer's having been able to sit in a room every day year after year alone.

The daily act of writing remains as demanding and maddening as it was before and the pleasure you get from writing - rare but profound - remains at the true heart of the enterprise. On their best days writers all over the world are winning Pulitzers all alone in their studios with no one watching.

I don't think I ever got the hang of the writers' room. I love collaborating with people but I really do my best work alone and I think I would want to - if I did something again I think I'd want to take total ownership the way Aaron Sorkin or David Kelley does.

I once had a boyfriend who couldn't write unless he was wearing a necktie and a dress shirt which I thought was really weird because this was a long time ago and no one I knew ever wore dress shirts let alone neckties it was like he was a grown-up reenacter or something.

And I find - I'm 63 and my capacity to be by myself and just spend time by myself hasn't diminished any. That's the necessary part of being a writer you better like being alone.

If I want to be alone some place I can write I can read I can pray I can cry I can do whatever I want - I go to the bathroom.

I alone of English writers have consciously set myself to make music out of what I may call the sound of sense.

God writes the Gospel not in the Bible alone but also on trees and in the flowers and clouds and stars.

I like to be alone so I can write. But focus can hurt you. I don't want to be some stress casualty in early middle age.

I vividly remember being 14. That was the age when I started to get happy: I started being a writer and stopped being a loser.

To write a story about New York that only deals with people in your age and socioeconomic bracket that feels dishonest to me. So much of New York comes from everyone bumping into each other.

I started writing when I had three kids under the age of 4. I used to write every ten minutes I got to sit in front of a computer. Now when I have more time I function the same way: if it's writing time I write.

Writers obviously have to bear witness to the harsh face of the age.

It's a little silly to finally learn how to write at this age. But I long ago realized I was secretly sincere.

Each age tries to form its own conception of the past. Each age writes the history of the past anew with reference to the conditions uppermost in its own time.

I want to sell to people my own age because that's the way I write songs.

I think all writers of my age who are brought up on films probably by the age of 16 have seen many more films than they have read classics of literature. We can't help but be influenced by film. Film has got some great tricks that it's taught writers.

I try to write lyrics so that they won't age which sort of leaves you with the big subjects like death and love and sex and violence.

The greatest writers of this age... are aware of the mystery of our existence.

When I write about a 15-year old I jump I return to the days when I was that age. It's like a time machine. I can remember everything. I can feel the wind. I can smell the air. Very actually. Very vividly.

Most of the basic material a writer works with is acquired before the age of fifteen.