Don Roff Quotes

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

— Don Roff

“I've found the best way to revise your own work is to pretend that somebody else wrote it and then to rip the living shit out of it.”

— Don Roff

“Always mystify, torture, mislead, and surprise the audience as much as possible.”

— Don Roff

The recipe for great art has always been misery and a good bowel movement.

— Don Roff

A writer always writes.

— Don Roff

“Nothing says work efficiency like panic mode.”

— Don Roff

“A migraine is the cockblock of writing.”

— Don Roff

“If you focus on the humanity of your stories, your characters, then the horror will be stronger, scarier. Without the humanity, the horror becomes nothing more than a tawdry parlor trick. All flash and no magic, and worst of all, no heart.”

— Don Roff

“If you treat your characters like people, they'll reward you by being fully developed individuals.”

— Don Roff

“But people in a small town tend to do a lot of talking, even when they don't know what they're talking about.”

— Don Roff

You can be a writer who doesn't read everyday. But you're not fooling anyone. It shows, rather embarrassingly, in your work.

— Don Roff

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

— Don Roff

“Regarding the creative: never assume you're the master, only the student. Your audience will determine if you're masterful.”

— Don Roff

“When you're writing what you love, it's the most fun you can have with your clothing still on, unless of course, you write naked.”

— Don Roff

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

— Don Roff

“Fear and self-doubt are the deadly enemies of creativity. Don't invite either into your mind.”

— Don Roff

“Writing a story, regardless of length, begins always with a single word.”

— Don Roff

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

— Don Roff

“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.”

— Don Roff

Don't think about the writing process too much. Just do one thing: tell the motherfucking story.

— Don Roff

“There is no right or wrong way to write a novel. Each journey is different for every individual work and for every writer. The first error is never to begin; the second is never to finish.”

— Don Roff

“It's hard to land a devastating jab/cross/hook/uppercut combo to your reader's imagination when you're telegraphing your punches.”

— Don Roff

“Write for impact first, money second. If you do it the other way around, you'll end up with less of either.”

— Don Roff

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

— Don Roff

“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.”

— Don Roff

“Any conversation including the mention of Roald Dahl, Ray Bradbury, or Emily Dickinson is one worth getting into or at least eavesdropping.”

— Don Roff

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

— Don Roff

“Mothman flew away from town, like a giant bat, and then disappeared from sight behind a thicket of skeletal autumn trees.”

— Don Roff

“When writing, I uncage KAT: Keep Adding Tension. Even if I don't know where the story's going, petting the KAT keeps it purring.”

— Don Roff

I've found that busting your ass on a daily basis to make your art good, clear, and meaningful creates the most luck.

— Don Roff

“A day of bad writing is always better than a day of no writing.”

— Don Roff

When you print out your manuscript and read it, marking up with a pen, it sometimes feels like a criminal returning to the scene of a crime.

— Don Roff

“Always work with/surround yourself with people who help make you a better version of you. Kindly avoid those who don't.”

— Don Roff

Writing a first-draft battle scene is akin to real combat-chaos, confusion, and you must keep your cool as you fire word bullets downrange.

— Don Roff

“Love it when a compelling new character kicks open your mental door, tracks mud across your brain, and props their feet up on your cerebrum.”

— Don Roff

“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.”

— Don Roff

“Successful writing is a slow, daily, meticulous form of mental illness.”

— Don Roff

“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.”

— 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.”

— Don Roff

“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.”

— Don Roff

If you don't love what you're writing, stop right now: it's not worth your time and certainly not the reader's.

— Don Roff

Even if you're in the thick of revising another work, write something new. Something small. It's important to keep telling yourself stories.

— Don Roff

“Yeah, episodic doesn't work. Your coolest character needs something big and meaningful to do. Otherwise, well, it's just narrative shit.”

— Don Roff

“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.”

— Don Roff

“There was talk of the Centaur being moved into the elephant cages to make room for a banjo-picking Minotaur. Surrendering his meager furnishings to a musical half man half bull was all bull.”

— Don Roff