Sometimes if there's a book you really want to read, you have to write it yourself. — Ann Patchett Copy Share Image
I made a startling discovery. Time spent writing = output of work. Amazing. — Ann Patchett Copy Share Image
Writing is a miserable, awful business. Stay with it. It is better than anything in the world. — Ann Patchett Copy Share Image
If I was a waitress, I was too tired at the end of the day when I came home to try to… — Ann Patchett Copy Share Image
That's the way I work. I get it all plotted in my mind, and then I write it down. — Ann Patchett Copy Share Image
Write because you love the art and the discipline, not because you're looking to sell something. — Ann Patchett Copy Share Image
“I can’t write the book I want to write, but I can and will write the book I am capable of writing.… — Ann Patchett Copy Share Image
I tend to keep my ideas in my head. When I write something down in a notebook it's never centralized. There are… — Ann Patchett Copy Share Image
I always feel it is a shortcoming of mine as a reader and as a writer that I frankly need to like… — Ann Patchett Copy Share Image
I've been writing the same book my whole life - that you're in one family, and all of a sudden, you're in… — Ann Patchett Copy Share Image
I love telling people what to read. It's my favorite thing in the world, to buy books and force books on people,… — Ann Patchett Copy Share Image
“An essential element of being a writer is learning whom to listen to and whom to ignore where your work is concerned.… — Ann Patchett Copy Share Image
Writing is a job, a talent, but it's also the place to go in your head. It is the imaginary friend you… — Ann Patchett Copy Share Image
“The more we are willing to separate from distraction and step into the open arms of boredom, the more writing will get… — Ann Patchett Copy Share Image
I was very influenced by The Magic Mountain. It's a book that had a huge impact on me. I loved that as… — Ann Patchett Copy Share Image
“She told the woman to go to one of the online agent sites that list agents who are looking for new clients,… — Ann Patchett Copy Share Image
“Maybe everyone does have a novel in them, perhaps even a great one. I don't believe it, but for the purposes of… — Ann Patchett Copy Share Image
I believe that, more than anything else, this grief of constantly having to face down our own inadequacies is what keeps people… — Ann Patchett Copy Share Image
Reading fiction not only develops our imagination and creativity, it gives us the skills to be alone. It gives us the ability… — Ann Patchett Copy Share Image
“If you want to write, practice writing. Practice it for hours a day, not to come up with a story you can… — Ann Patchett Copy Share Image
“if I wanted to be a better writer, I was the only person who could push myself to do it. It was… — Ann Patchett Copy Share Image
That's one of the many things about having the bookstore that I adore. I can walk into the store and say to… — Ann Patchett Copy Share Image
“I wrote the last sentence of The Patron Saint of Liars in early April and stumbled out of my apartment and into… — Ann Patchett Copy Share Image
“...fiction writing is like duck hunting. You go to the right place at the right time with the right dog. You get… — Ann Patchett Copy Share Image
I don't want to stand with somebody's praise. Whereas now when people come up to me, they say, "I love the bookstore"… — Ann Patchett Copy Share Image
I was starting to wonder if I was ready to be a writer, not someone who won prizes, got published and was… — Ann Patchett Copy Share Image
Do you want to do this thing? Sit down and do it. Are you not writing? Keep sitting there. Does it not… — Ann Patchett Copy Share Image
I'm disappointed by well-written novels that only deal with two or three people. — Ann Patchett Copy Share Image
I think people become consumed with selling a book when they need to be consumed with writing it. — Ann Patchett Copy Share Image
I can't write the book I want to write, but I can and will write the book I am capable of writing. — Ann Patchett Copy Share
“Without worry to protect me, every thought that came into my mind received real attention.” — Ann Patchett Copy Share
“I wrote the last sentence of The Patron Saint of Liars in early April and stumbled out of my apartment and into the beautiful… — Ann Patchett Copy Share
“He was in love, and never had he felt such kindness towards another person.” — Ann Patchett Copy Share
If I was a waitress, I was too tired at the end of the day when I came home to try to write. — Ann Patchett Copy Share
“She didn't know how to hate her mother yet, but every time she left her father crying in the airport she came that much… — Ann Patchett Copy Share
“When you think of love you think as an American. You must think like a Russian. It is a more expansive view.' 'Americans havea… — Ann Patchett Copy Share
“...Nebraska was white, a page as still as fallen snow. It was not crosshatched with roads, overrun with the hard lines of interstate systems.… — Ann Patchett Copy Share
“Clearly he needed a father, but some other father, any other father, would have been preferable.” — Ann Patchett Copy Share
