Writer Quotes · Page 314

An author knows his landscape best; he can stand around, smell the wind, get a feel for his place.

— Tony Hillerman

“I guess Faulkner never would have written anything like this, huh? Oh, well.”

— Stephen King

Throughout his life, Dickens cared passionately about orphans.

— Claire Tomalin

I hate to badmouth any book or writer, because I know how it feels to be on the other end of that.

— Karin Slaughter

No writing is good that does not tend to better mankind in some way or other.

— Alexander Pope

To write is to make oneself the echo of what cannot cease speaking.

— Arnold Bennett

Writing fiction, like reading fiction, is a practice in empathy.

— Jennifer Haigh

I do like the idea of being an auteur in the sense of writing and being in your own stuff.

— T. J. Miller

“I do not believe that I should only write about what I know but that I should write also of the other.”

— Felisberto Hernandez

I wanted to be a writer first, and I struck out in the world to be a writer first, and then found…

— B. J. Novak

I think people read travel books either because they intend to take that trip, or because they would never take that trip.…

— Paul Theroux

“Life has its own chapters and no chapter stays for ever. Move on and enjoy the wonders and face the sorrows of…

— Vishnu Kanchan

I have always been a huge admirer of my own work. I'm one of the funniest and most entertaining writers I know.

— Mel Brooks

“He wanted to run through the stacks, pick at the books, sample them one after the other, climb the stacks to their…

— Lavie Tidhar

'Carrie' was a pretty big-budget movie at a real studio, with a director that had already done a bunch of things and…

— P. J. Soles

Every writer has something to say, but those writers whose works endure have dared to say something about the things that frighten…

— Holly Lisle

“Perhaps writing a story or a novel was not something that should be done for money, or to win praise, but for…

— Vanessa Wu

For me, writing is a job. I do not separate the work from the act of writing like two things that have…

— Jose Saramago

When I am writing, I am trying to find out who I am, who we are, what we're capable of, how we…

— Maya Angelou

A narrative thread gives people permission to think about other things whilst being carried by its flow. It does not mean that…

— Sally Potter

“We know this type of person well from literature, probably because so many writers are sensitive introverts themselves. He “had gone through…

— Susan Cain

If one of my kids reads a book for school and I can have a conversation with her about the book and…

— Michael J. Fox

I've learned a lot about language from reading slush. You can immediately tell if a writer is in control of the narrative.…

— Mary J. Miller

There's this great Ron Carlson story, "A Note on the Type," and it's about this guy who keeps escaping from prison. He's…

— Pam Houston

I nearly always write — just as I nearly always breathe.

— John Steinbeck

If people would write exactly what I wanted to read I wouldn't feel so compelled to write myself

— Laurell K. Hamilton

Once I got my life sorted and started to get healthy, then I was able to focus on writing.

— Mary Gauthier

Write for the love of writing and you can't go wrong.

— Christopher Paul Curtis

I just feel like myself when I'm writing. If I don't do it, I get depressed.

— Olivia Rodrigo

Unfortunately, a lot of kids don't read anymore. I don't know what we can do about that.

— Jean Smart

A writer doesn't really have much of a function on a movie set.

— Tom Stoppard

The books weren't exactly Linnet's general reading fare, but a desperate woman will read anything.

— Eloisa James

“If I could choose I would rather be happy than write.”

— Jean Rhys

“Its dark and I’m reading my scars because our moments remind me of where I should be.”

— robert m drake

Reading is a means of thinking with another person's mind; it forces you to stretch your own.

— Anonymous

Literature is born when something in life goes slightly adrift.

— Simone de Beauvoir

At a certain moment, I decided to write a story. I had no more small children to tell them stories.

— Umberto Eco

“Calling a book "Young Adult" is just a fancy way of saying the book is censored.”

— Oliver Markus

“To read well, that is, to read true books in a true spirit, is a noble exercise...”

— Henry David Thoreau

If a book has no index or good table of contents, it is very useful to make one as you are reading…

— Isaac