Life & Wisdom Quote by J.B. Priestley

"If you are a genius, you'll make your own rules, but if not - and the odds are against it - go to your desk no matter what your mood, face the icy challenge of the paper - write"

J.B. Priestley, Writer

About this Quote

Priestley doesn’t romanticize the writer’s life; he demotes “mood” from muse to excuse. The line is built like a hard slap delivered with a soft glove: a nod to genius, immediately undercut by the statistical chill of “the odds are against it.” That pivot is the whole strategy. By granting the fantasy (maybe you’re a genius), he makes it easier to surrender it. The message isn’t anti-talent; it’s anti-alibi.

The phrase “make your own rules” flatters the reader for a beat, then turns into a dare. If you’re truly exceptional, fine, be exceptional. Everyone else has to do what professionals do: show up. Priestley’s subtext is democratic and slightly impatient: most art is made by people who are not visited by lightning, but who sit down anyway. “Go to your desk” is almost industrial language, treating writing as labor with a time clock. It’s a corrective to the cult of inspiration, the popular belief that real writers write only when it feels inevitable.

“Icy challenge of the paper” is vivid in a way that admits fear without indulging it. The page is cold, blank, indifferent; it will not warm itself to your personality. Priestley, a working writer in a century of upheaval and deadlines, understood that craft is less a fountain than a faucet: you turn it on, even when it sputters. The final word, “write,” lands like an order and a permission slip at once.

Quote Details

Topic	Writing
Source	Help us find the source
Cite

More Quotes by Priestley Add to List

About the Author

J.B. Priestley

J.B. Priestley (September 13, 1894 - August 14, 1984) was a Writer from United Kingdom.

38 more quotes available

View Profile

Similar Quotes

"My ideas usually come not at my desk, writing, but in the midst of living"

Anais Nin, Author

Anais Nin

"I do have an office where about 70 percent of my writing gets done, but sometimes it does get a bit stir-crazy to be cooped up in there, so I'll grab my laptop and write somewhere else: another room in the house, out on the patio, or even Heaven-forbid, a trip to Starbucks. But I also write on the road"

James Rollins, Author

"If they give you ruled paper, write the other way"

Juan Ramon Jimenez, Poet

Juan Ramon Jimenez

"My attitude to writing is like when you do wallpapering, you remember where all the little bits are that don't meet. And then your friends say: It's terrific!"

Harrison Birtwistle, Composer

"Oh yeah, we all write. That's what's great about when you have basics in piano"

Caroline Corr, Musician

"It's hard for me to show work while I'm writing, because other people's comments will influence what happens"

Donna Tartt, Novelist

"I did that for 40 years or more. I never had any writer's block. I got up in the morning, sat down at the typewriter - now, computer - lit up a cigarette"

Frederik Pohl, Writer

Frederik Pohl

"Depending on what I'm working on, I come to the writing desk with entirely different mindsets. When I change form one to the other, it's as if another writer is on the scene!"

Evan Hunter, Author

"If you don't know what to do with many of the papers piled on your desk, stick a dozen colleagues initials on them and pass them along. When in doubt, route"

Malcolm Forbes, Publisher

Malcolm Forbes

"I can almost always write music; at any hour of the twenty-four, if I put pencil to paper, music comes"

John Philip Sousa, Musician

"Writing is easy: All you do is sit staring at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead"

Gene Fowler, Journalist

"To write something, you have to risk making a fool of yourself"

Anne Rice, Novelist

"When I'm writing something, I try not to get analytical about it as I'm doing it, as I'm writing it"

Quentin Tarantino, Director

Quentin Tarantino

"But with writing, all you need is a pad of paper"

Scott Caan, Actor

"I am a very linear thinker, so I write beginning to end. I write hundreds of pages per book that never make it into print"

Laurell K. Hamilton, Writer

"The term papers make me more crazy, because they involve more variables, I cannot directly control! With acting, I feel more power-like, I'm making all the choices"

Fred Savage, Actor

"I'm drowning in papers"

Wislawa Szymborska, Poet

Wislawa Szymborska

"I have a huge respect for writers and realise that this is not an area that I find easy. I doubt that I would have the patience in front of a blank sheet of paper to become a writer"

Jenny Agutter, Actress

Jenny Agutter

"Write a lot. And finish what you write. Don't join writer's clubs and go sit around having coffee reading pieces of your manuscript to people. Write it. Finish it. I set those rules up years ago, and nothing's changed"

Jerry Pournelle, Journalist

"What I think is interesting is that the more you do, you have to invent a book of rules of what you can do and what you can't do. And the very real danger is that if your book of rules becomes a book of cliches"

Adrian Lyne, Director