"I loved the process of writing"
About this Quote
In a culture that treats art like a lottery ticket, Nora Roberts makes a quiet, almost radical move: she falls in love with the work, not the outcome. "I loved the process of writing" isn’t a boast about inspiration; it’s a statement of allegiance. Roberts, a machine of popular fiction with a famously disciplined routine, is signaling that the engine of her success isn’t mystique. It’s repetition. It’s craft. It’s showing up.
The subtext pushes back against two myths that cling to literature: that real writers are powered by suffering, and that productivity is somehow suspect. Roberts has long been treated as both an outlier and a target precisely because she writes a lot and sells even more. The line reads like a corrective to the sneer that commercial success means shallow engagement. Loving the process reframes volume as devotion rather than assembly-line output.
There’s also a gendered charge here. Romance and women’s fiction are routinely dismissed as "guilty pleasures", their creators expected to be either apologetic or defensive. Roberts refuses both. The sentence is plain, almost stubbornly unglamorous, and that’s the point: she’s grounding authorship in daily labor and private satisfaction, not elite validation.
Intent-wise, it’s motivational without becoming a slogan. It doesn’t promise ease; it proposes a sustainable relationship with the page. If you can love the process, you’re no longer hostage to reviews, algorithms, or the fickle theater of publishing. You’ve already won the part that actually lasts.
The subtext pushes back against two myths that cling to literature: that real writers are powered by suffering, and that productivity is somehow suspect. Roberts has long been treated as both an outlier and a target precisely because she writes a lot and sells even more. The line reads like a corrective to the sneer that commercial success means shallow engagement. Loving the process reframes volume as devotion rather than assembly-line output.
There’s also a gendered charge here. Romance and women’s fiction are routinely dismissed as "guilty pleasures", their creators expected to be either apologetic or defensive. Roberts refuses both. The sentence is plain, almost stubbornly unglamorous, and that’s the point: she’s grounding authorship in daily labor and private satisfaction, not elite validation.
Intent-wise, it’s motivational without becoming a slogan. It doesn’t promise ease; it proposes a sustainable relationship with the page. If you can love the process, you’re no longer hostage to reviews, algorithms, or the fickle theater of publishing. You’ve already won the part that actually lasts.
Quote Details
| Topic | Writing |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Roberts, Nora. (2026, January 15). I loved the process of writing. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-loved-the-process-of-writing-151890/
Chicago Style
Roberts, Nora. "I loved the process of writing." FixQuotes. January 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-loved-the-process-of-writing-151890/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"I loved the process of writing." FixQuotes, 15 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-loved-the-process-of-writing-151890/. Accessed 9 Feb. 2026.
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