Literary Birthday – 25 February – John Lanchester

Happy Birthday, John Lanchester, born 25 February 1962.

Quotes

1. The standard personality type for a writer is a shy megalomaniac.
2. We wouldn’t care so much what people thought of us if we knew how seldom they did.
3. Sometimes, the only way of doing something is to do it.
4. I write non-fiction quicker and I write it on a computer. Fiction I write longhand and that helps make it clear that it comes from a slightly different part of the brain, I think. The other distinction is that with non-fiction I’m constantly editing as I go along and with fiction I don’t. If you engage the critical part of you it makes it much harder and actually you just need to get through a first draft. (via)
5. I don’t answer the phone or do my email; I don’t do anything until I’ve got the day’s writing done. I have a word count for every day: 500 for fiction, 1,000 for non-fiction and journalism is 1,500. That’s a level I can sustain. (via)

John Lanchester is a British journalist and novelist. His most recent books are Capital, a novel, and the non-fiction, How to Speak Money.

Source for image

 by Amanda Patterson

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