A Quote by John Burnside

You can't sit down and decide what you want to write about. — © John Burnside
You can't sit down and decide what you want to write about.
I don't sit down to write a country song. I don't sit down to write a rap song. I just sit down to write a song, you know what I mean? And I try to make that song the best it can be.
The best part of owning a blog is the fact that you are in control. You can write about anything you want to write about. You can decide how your blog looks. You can decide who to target. You can decide how to monetize the blog. You have full control!
If you want to be a writer-stop talking about it and sit down and write!
I don't know what any of my songs are about. I don't sit down to write about anything. They're about whatever you want. I don't pick subjects. I just start.
If only you’d remember before ever you sit down to write that you’ve been a reader long before you were ever a writer. You simply fix that fact in your mind, then sit very still and ask yourself, as a reader, what piece of writing in all the world Buddy Glass would most want to read if he had his heart’s choice. The next step is terrible, but so simple I can hardly believe it as I write it. You just sit down shamelessly and write the thing yourself. I won’t even underline that. It’s too important to be underlined.
I don't sit down to write a funny story. Every single thing I sit down to write is meant to be sad.
When we write songs, we don't ever sit down to write an Old Dominion song. We just sit down to write the best song we possibly can.
There are two things John and I always do when we're going to sit down and write a song. First of all we sit down. Then we think about writing a song.
What it takes is to actually write: not to think about it, not to imagine it, not to talk about it, but to actually want to sit down and write. I'm lucky I learned that habit a really long time ago. I credit my mother with that. She was an English teacher, but she was a writer.
My writing isn't actually guided by issues. I know it seems that way, but I don't sit down and think, Oh, there's this issue I'm bothered about. I only write about things that directly impact my life. When I write, there's a pain that I have to reach, and a release I have to work toward for myself. So it's really a question of the particular emotional circumstance that I want to express, a character that appears, a moment in time, and then I write the play backwards.
Writing is total grunt work. A lot of people think it's all about sitting and waiting for the muse. I don't buy that. It's a job. There are days when I really want to write, days when I don't. Every day I sit down and write.
I understand what's going on, and when I see the fervor, when I see 25,000 people that have seats and not one person during an hour speech will sit down, I say sit down everybody, sit down, and they don't sit down, I mean, that's a great compliment but I do understand the power of the message. There's no question about that.
My writing process often begins with a question. I write down ideas and let them stew for about a year. Then, when I sit down to write, I make a list of characters and try to see how they fit.
You have to want to write and like to write. Sit down at that desk or machine or laptop and tell stories.
What do you really want? Sit down and write it out on a piece of paper. Write it in the present tense.
I try to write about small insignificant things. I try to find out if it’s possible to say anything about them. And I almost always do if I sit down and write about something. There is something in that thing that I can write about. It’s very much like a rehearsal. An exercise, in a way.
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