"Writing fiction is for me a fraught business, an occasion of daily dread for at least the first half of the novel, and sometimes all the way through. The work process is totally different from writing nonfiction. You have to sit down every day and make it up.“


-Joan Didion

posted in business


Writing fiction is for me a fraught business, an occasion of daily dread for at least the first half of the novel, and sometimes all the way through. The work process is totally different from writing nonfiction. You have to sit down every day and make it up.

Other Quotes You Might Like

Discover more inspiring quotes from our collection

"I'm not sure I have the physical strength to undertake a novel."

-Joan Didion

strengthView Quote
"Strength is one of those things you're supposed to have. You don't feel that you have it at the time you're going through it."

-Joan Didion

strengthView Quote
"To free us from the expectations of others, to give us back to ourselves - there lies the great, singular power of self-respect."

-Joan Didion

respectView Quote
"Grammar is a piano I play by ear. All I know about grammar is its power."

-Joan Didion

powerView Quote
"To free us from the expectations of others, to give us back to ourselves - there lies the great, singular power of self-respect."

-Joan Didion

powerView Quote
"Before I'd written movies, I never could do big set-piece scenes with a lot of different speakers - when you've got twelve people around a dinner table talking at cross purposes. I had always been impressed by other people's ability to do that."

-Joan Didion

moviesView Quote

More Quotes About business

Explore other inspiring quotes in this category

"Of course this is Vegas and it is the melting pot for all over the world, but people from all over the world know Donny and Marie. It is amazing. I have been in the business a long time to realize careers can be fleeting. Five years is a long career nowadays for some people, and here we are still going strong after 40 years."

-Donny Osmond

businessView Quote
"Our competition for American business is no longer in the next county or the next state, it's around the world."

-Karl Rove

businessView Quote
"McSweeney's as a publishing company is built on a business model that only works when we sell physical books. So we try to put a lot of effort into the design and production of the book-as-object."

-Dave Eggers

businessView Quote
"A belief in God is vitally important, not just in show business, but stability in life. You know, to recognize deity is the most important thing that you can do. I mean, it comes to the Ten Commandments. They weren't ten suggestions. They were Ten Commandments."

-Donny Osmond

businessView Quote
"To me, the print business model is so simple, where readers pay a dollar for all the content within, and that supports the enterprise."

-Dave Eggers

businessView Quote
"It's a lot of work to keep reinventing yourself and coming up with new stuff, but that's what it takes to be in show business."

-Donny Osmond

businessView Quote