Will Self Quotes

A creative life cannot be sustained by approval any more than it can be destroyed by criticism.

Always carry a notebook. And I mean always. The short-term memory only retains information for three minutes; unless it is committed to paper you can lose an idea for ever.

I'm an anarchist. I'm implacably opposed to heirarchical systems of power and control. I also mistrust crowds, as they often operate according to their lowest common denominator. In terms of evolutionary psychology, the crowd is very close to a herd of stampeding wildebeest.

You know that sickening feeling of inadequacy and over-exposure you feel when you look upon your own empurpled prose? Relax into the awareness that this ghastly sensation will never, ever leave you, no matter how successful and publicly lauded you become. It is intrinsic to the real business of writing and should be cherished.

Schadenfreude is so nutritious.

I think of writing as a sculptural medium. You are not building things. You are removing things, chipping away at language to reveal a living form.

The cynics are correct the sense of freewill is only that feeling which we have when we take the necessitated option that most appeals to us.

So I was smacked up on the Prime Minister's jet – big deal.