The written word is redundant on the high seas. Why? Because paper gets wet too easily.
Walter MoersWriters are there to write, not experience things. If you want to experience things, become a pirate or a Bookhunter. If you want to write, write. If you can't find the makings of a story inside yourself, you won't find them anywhere.
Walter MoersSometimes, in the course of my hopeless quest, I would pick up and dip into one of the ordinary books that lay strewn around the castle. Whenever I did, it seemed so insipid and insubstantial that I flew into a rage and hurled it at the wall after reading the first few sentences. I was spoilt for any other form of literature, and the mental torment I endured was comparable to the agony of unrequited love compounded by the withdrawal symptoms associated with a severe addiction.
Walter MoersAnyone can write. Some people can write a bit better than others; they're called authors. Then there are some who can write better than authors; they're called artists.
Walter MoersIn my profession it isnโt a question of telling good literature from bad. Really good literature is seldom appreciated in its own day. The best authors die poor, the bad ones make money โ itโs always been like that. What do I, an agent, get out of a literary genius who wonโt be discovered for another hundred years? Iโll be dead myself then. Successful incompetents are what I need.
Walter Moers