theparisreview:

“I have to be alone. A bus is good. Or walking the dog. Brushing my teeth is marvelous—it was especially so for Catch-22. Often when I am very tired, just before going to bed, while washing my face and brushing my teeth, my mind gets very clear … and produces a line for the next day’s work, or some idea way ahead. I don’t get my best ideas while actually writing … which is the agony of putting down what I think are good ideas and finding the words for them and the paragraph forms for them … a laborious process. I don’t think of myself as a naturally gifted writer when it comes to using language. I distrust myself. Consequently, I try every which way with a sentence, then a paragraph, and finally a page, choosing words, selecting pace (I’m obsessed with that, even the pace of a sentence). I say to myself what I hope to put down on paper, but I hope not aloud. I think sometimes I move my lips, not only when I’m writing, but when I’m thinking of what I’m going to be having for dinner.”

—Joseph Heller, The Art of Fiction No. 51