Don Roff Quotes

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

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

A migraine is the cockblock of writing.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

A writer always writes.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

Nothing says work efficiency like panic mode.

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

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

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.

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