I needed to write, to express myself through written language not only so that others might hear me but so that I could hear myself.

A writer wants what he has to say to be heard again and again. He wants it to be heard after he is dead.

I do think that reading aloud, or performing one’s own work is very helpful to the writing process. You can hear the voices you are creating, see the scenes you’ve created, and where the text falters.

Why would we write if we’d already heard what we wanted to hear?

If you want to be your most creative self, you must hear your own words at the same time others do.

If a writer has the desire to communicate by writing and be heard, then he necessarily cares about seeing it in print. I suppose it's the difference between masturbation and making love — the real writer wants to touch another person.

I need to listen well so that I hear what is not said.

I need to listen well so that I hear what is not said.

I think I have a sense of how things need to sound, how to pull an audience in with tone, timing, and pacing. That affects a lot of my writing, too, being hyper aware of how an audience might read something. I want what’s happening on the page to mimic what my body would do on stage. A lot of that came out in the audiobook. I think I would have struggled to record the audiobook without having stage experience because it’s a lot of work to maintain that kind of performance voice.

when you’re writing, and I think when you’re creating, too, it’s a large part of that act of writing or — whether it’s music or stories or poetry or drawing, or any of the — it’s — a large part of it is listening.

I need to listen well so that I hear what is not said.
Thuli Madonsela1

Writing, in a way, is listening to the others’ language and reading with the others’ eyes. The more ears I am able to hear with, the farther I see the plurality of meaning and the less I lend myself to the illusion of a single message.

I think it. I say it. You hear it. Sometimes, I don't even think it, I just say it.

How do I know what I think until I hear what I say?