Don Roff

The best writers I've read possess oodles of self-doubt, yet claw their way up with each work and remain humble. Boastful ones, not so much.

I don't use big words to show off because it's ostentatious.

If you schlep a shit job everyday, keep and feed a little secret life--whether it's writing, art, running, music, your thoughts. It's yours.

Writers often torture themselves trying to get the words right. Sometimes you must lower your expectations and just finish it.

It's my belief that people enter your life at exactly the right time.

Fear and self-doubt are the deadly enemies of creativity. Don__ invite either into your mind.

Audiences will admire your character__ strength but connect with them through their weakness.

Write about the thing that scares you most or your most private confession and you'll never have a problem coming up with decent fiction.

Authors must spend months, years making fantasy believable in a single work while reality runs rampant and complete chaos elsewhere.

Keep being bold on the page, and in life, and people cannot ignore you forever.

You cannot write your character until you know how he or she thinks, until you know what their philosophy is in the world that they occupy.

We often wait for that knock of opportunity, though I've found it's better to just grab a chainsaw and cut open your own fucking door.

I write fiction. It may have mystery, it may have horror, it may have fantasy, it may have love, but like life, it's all the same genre.

I write every day whether somebody pays me or not. I write every day whether or not self-doubt is kicking my ass. It's what writers must do.

You're never as good a writer as you think you are, and you're never as bad. Just keep reading and writing, writing, writing.

A writer always writes.

If you write a kid's book only for kids, then you have failed.

Nothing's a better cure for writer's block than to eat ice cream right out of the carton.