“Awful first drafts are fine—Agree with this. If you don’t finish something, you’ll never get in the game. Just quell the voice… — Jamie Freveletti Copy Share Image
I spend a lot of time thinking, if not daydreaming. People think of me as a genre writer, and a genre writer… — Samuel R. Delany Copy Share Image
The main rule of writing is that if you do it with enough assurance and confidence, you’re allowed to do whatever you… — Neil Gaiman Copy Share Image
“Bad writing is more than a matter of shit syntax and faulty observation; bad writing usually arises from a stubborn refusal to… — Stephen King Copy Share Image
The best way to get kids to read a book is to say: 'This book is not appropriate for your age, and… — Philip Pullman Copy Share Image
My husband, a.k.a. Swede, and I both come from athletic backgrounds, so once we identified the goal - get book published -… — Kresley Cole Copy Share Image
To me, the process of writing is just reading what I've written and - like running your hand over one of those… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
“Whether or not you employ humor in dealing with difficult subjects, the tone of the writing is of the utmost importance. Personally,… — Judith Barrington Copy Share Image
I write about what is getting to me at the time, about the things you need to talk about, but which would… — Dolores O'Riordan Copy Share Image
The way, applicable in our non-revolutionary societies, to prepare for the time when everyone will read, is to pose problems in the… — Jean-Paul Sartre Copy Share Image
“Writing is the voices inside our heads, our minds, the creativity that exists for us to, from nothing, create alternate worlds, manipulate… — Allie Burke Copy Share Image
If you understand writing as primarily engaging an imaginary reader, well, you've kind of been doing that your whole life. You walk… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
Sometimes you just have to turn the page to realize theres more to your book of life than the page youre stuck… — Anonymous Copy Share Image
Being a librarian certainly helped me with my writing because it made me even more of a reader, and I was always… — Margaret Mahy Copy Share Image
“Librarians are serious people, seldom given to jocularity. The reason for this, I believe, is because we are overwhelmed by the enormous… — Lynn Austin Copy Share Image
I find myself really feeling like it's possible that maybe the greater contribution I'm going to be able to make through this… — Karen Allen Copy Share Image
Maybe I don't think I'm touching people, but I am. Sometimes I'm sitting there at three in the morning, proofreading something, and… — Micah Lexier Copy Share Image
“Slowly I discovered that writing was my way of coping with chaos and my cry of freedom, my homage to beauty. Because… — Vittorio Vandelli Copy Share Image
“Ideas never stop, dear S, they're everywhere, in everything - all we have to do is be open to them. And stories… — Ali Smith Copy Share Image
It is in this matter that I fall foul of so many American writers on writing; they seem to think that writing… — Robertson Davies Copy Share Image
Writing is such a strange, utterly mysterious process. First, there was nothing; then, suddenly, there was something. I don't know where thoughts… — Paul Auster Copy Share Image
“Is not literature meant to speak of our being a thousand different kinds of things, at times creating even this diversity? If… — Peter Esterhazy Copy Share Image
“When I sit down to write I never brood. I have so many other things to do, with my children and teaching,… — Mason Currey Copy Share Image
Books can accommodate the proximity of computers but it doesn't seem to work the other way around. Computers now literally drive out… — Larry McMurtry Copy Share Image
A good book deserves an active reading. The activity of reading does not stop with the work of understanding what a book… — Anonymous Copy Share Image
The expectation was that 'True Confessions' would be my first published book, but that didn't happen. After it was rejected by every… — Rachel Gibson Copy Share Image
I have written millions of words about contemporary England - in journalism. Why don't I take it as the background for a… — Sebastian Faulks Copy Share Image
“This is why, when we have been particularly impressed by a book, we feel the need to talk about it; we do… — Wolfgang Iser Copy Share Image
Meggie Folchart: Having writer's block? Maybe I can help. Fenoglio: Oh yes, that's right. You want to be a writer, don't you?… — Anonymous Copy Share Image
By and large, the critics and readers gave me an affirmed sense of my identity as a writer. You might know this… — Ralph Ellison Copy Share Image
I suffer as always from the fear of putting down the first line. It is amazing the terrors, the magics, the prayers,… — John Steinbeck Copy Share Image
If I were to offer any advice to young writers, it would be this: be discriminating and be discerning about the work… — Barry Lopez Copy Share Image
“I do see why Nikki likes the novel, as it's written so well, but her liking it makes me worry now that… — Matthew Quick Copy Share Image
Basically, I've reached the point where I've lost any direct relationship to any of the editors I used to have. I suspect… — Richard Meltzer Copy Share Image
There are just long gaps where I can't find a point of insertion, I can't find a good opening line, I can't… — Billy Collins Copy Share Image
There are 20,000 million books I could have to read, but I can pick the ones and know that I'm learning something… — Doris Kearns Goodwin Copy Share Image
Brooke Berman's voice is utterly distinct, and her book, detailing her nomadic artist's journey toward both a successful playwriting career and a… — Maria Dahvana Headley Copy Share Image
I started with [Leo] Tolstoy and I was overwhelmed. Tolstoy writes like an ocean, in huge, rolling waves, and it doesn't look… — Mel Brooks Copy Share Image
“But the important thing is that I don't do anything else. I avoid social life normally associated with publishing. I don't go… — Toni Morrison Copy Share Image
I talk to my readers on social networking sites, but I never tell them what the book is about. Writing is lonely,… — Paulo Coelho Copy Share Image