Writer Quotes · Page 261

Negative books can be bestsellers, but seldom classics.

— Mark Skousen

People of all demographic categories and geographic regions will access a good digital library.

— Tom Peters

“All great stories began as shitty first drafts. There are no exceptions to this.”

— M. Kirin

I made up a story about you and I. I lived it like it was true. I loved it like a boo.

— Ama M

I mean it's the writing, not the being read, that excites me.

— Virginia Woolf

I try to make my books reflect humanity as I see it.

— Tony Hillerman

The actual business of writing dialogue is not thought of as a craft.

— David Hare

A novel should be an experience and convey an emotional truth rather than arguments.

— Joyce Cary

“Writers have influenced thoughts, principals, viewpoints and experiences throughout history. A talented writer’s pen is anointed with magic!”

— C. Toni Graham

I have never met an author who was sorry he or she wrote a book. They are only sorry they did not…

— Sam Horn

When I am writing a story it feels as real as the life I am experiencing off the page. It's an emotional…

— Tayari Jones

I started out of course with Hemingway when I learned how to write. Until I realized Hemingway doesn't have a sense of…

— Elmore Leonard

“A book is kind of like a good Horcrux, if we can imagine that -- a piece of the writer's soul, preserved…

— Cheryl B. Klein

“An idea doesn’t have to be a plot notion, just a place to begin creating. Plots often generate themselves when one begins…

— Neil Gaiman

“Writers are in many ways like demi-gods. With one stroke of a pen they can give life to a character, or strike…

— Steven Lake

The first few months of my life of every year are in total retreat. I don't see anybody except my husband and…

— Isabel Allende

Simply put, meta-writing is writing that is self-conscious, self-reflective, and aware of itself as an artifice. The writer is aware she's writing,…

— Jill Talbot

I'm a long time [Scott] Fitzgerald fan, as probably everyone in America is. And I've always been fascinated by that theme of,…

— Matt Bomer

“Do not get glum when you are no longer understood, little book. Do not curse your fate. Do not reach up from…

— Joanna Russ

“I do not believe that all books will or should migrate onto screens: as Douglas Adams once pointed out to me, more…

— Neil Gaiman

“An idea is a gift, a finished project is turning that gift into a book by making yourself write even when you…

— Elaine Orr

“At your next book club meeting, picture me sitting quietly in the corner, taking notes on your preferences. Imagine the next day…

— G.R. Reader

The one recurring theme in my writing, and in my life in general, is confusion. The fact that anytime you think you…

— Conor Oberst

I love writing. I love getting lost in creative projects when I'm going through a tough transition in life. I always keep…

— Melanie Iglesias

Yes, I write a lot of my own stuff. I love to write, it allows you to be real and show yourself.

— Ray J

I have different books for different times of the day, let alone different seasons of the year!

— Colum McCann

I think it's easier for me to write from experience.

— Phoebe Bridgers

Novels are such mysterious and amorphous and tender things.

— Arundhati Roy

“Write so blazingly good that you can't be framed... Write like a motherfucker.”

— Cheryl Strayed

Writers are always a great nuisance to publishers. If they could do without them, they would.

— Fay Weldon

“I recommend writing standing up from time to time. It's easier to dance when you finish writing.”

— Diego Ramos

Just a writer with a pen, writing about my life of sin. Shit, I don't even know where to begin..

— Raghib Clitso

There can be no better prize for a writer than one awarded by an international book fair.

— Antonio Munoz Molina

Topiary has always seemed like a good occupation, comparable in some ways to writing short fiction.

— Kelly Link

“Libraries are not, never will be, used by everyone.”

— Alberto Manguel

“Books are the reality you get to choose; life is the reality you hide from inside a book.”

— A.M. Hudson

“trying to outrun the novelist’s most insidious enemy, which is doubt.”

— Stephen King

“When you are a writer, "Just be yourself" takes on a whole different, confusing meaning.”

— Jennivie Wirries

“this is not the first time that intimidation by typewriter has caused me to consider the pen.”

— Tom Robbins

The one reader I'm trying to please as I write is me, and I'm pretty difficult to please.

— Sara Zarr