Quotes & Sayings About Writing Gabriel Garcia Marquez

I think that the idea that I'm writing for many more people than I ever imagined has created a certain general responsibility that is literary and political. There's even pride involved, in not wanting to fall short of what I did before. — Gabriel Garcia Marquez

It's much more important to write than to be written about. — Gabriel Garcia Marquez

People spend a lifetime thinking about how they would really like to live. I asked my friends and no one seems to know very clearly. To me it's very clear now. I wish my life could have been like the years when I was writing 'Love in the Time of Cholera.' — Gabriel Garcia Marquez

A famous writer who wants to continue writing has to be constantly defending himself against fame. — Gabriel Garcia Marquez

As a writer I'm merely a journalist who has learned to write better than others. — Gabriel Garcia Marquez

The first line reads, "As Gregor Samsa awoke that morning from uneasy dreams, he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect ... " When I read that line I thought to myself that I didn't know anyone was allowed to write things like that. If I had known, I would have started writing a long time ago — Gabriel Garcia Marquez

One of the most difficult things is the first paragraph. I have spent many months on a first paragraph, and once I get it, the rest just comes out very easily. In the first paragraph you solve most of the problems with your book. The theme is defined, the style, the tone. At least in my case, the first paragraph is a kind of sample of what the rest of the book is going to be. That's why writing a book of short stories is much more difficult than writing a novel. Every time you write a short story, you have to begin all over again. — Gabriel Garcia Marquez

All my life, I've been frightened at the moment I sit down to write. — Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Today, retired but not defeated, I enjoy the sacred privilege of writing at home, with the phone off the hook so that no one can disturb me, and without a censor looking over my shoulder to see what I am writing. — Gabriel Garcia Marquez

When I sit down to write, which is the essential moment in my life, I am completely alone. — Gabriel Garcia Marquez

One night a friend lent me a book of short stories by Franz Kafka. I went back to the pension where I was staying and began to read The Metamorphosis. The first line almost knocked me off the bed. I was so surprised. The first line reads, "As Gregor Samsa awoke that morning from uneasy dreams, he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect ... " When I read the line I thought to myself that I didn't know anyone was allowed to write things like that. If I had known, I would have started writing a long time ago. So I immediately started writing short stories. — Gabriel Garcia Marquez

I never used to write down all the ideas that occur to me while writing. I believed if I forgot them they were not important, and the ones that really mattered were those I remembered. Now I write them all down. — Gabriel Garcia Marquez

The only thing that didn't occur to her was to give up. Nevertheless, he seemed insensible to her
delirium; it was like writing to nobody. — Gabriel Garcia Marquez

The more transparent the writing, the more visible the poetry. — Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Faulkner is a writer who has had much to do with my soul, but Hemingway is the one who had the most to do with my craft - not simply for his books, but for his astounding knowledge of the aspect of craftsmanship in the science of writing. — Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Then the writing became so fluid that I sometimes felt as if I were writing for the sheer pleasure of telling a story, which may be the human condition that most resembles levitation. — Gabriel Garcia Marquez