Writer Quotes · Page 396

Perhaps there are none more lazy, or more truly ignorant, than your everlasting readers.

— Marcus Aurelius

I feel my thoughts flow freely when I write in Kannada.

— Sudha Murty

“The truth is, my friend, you never know where a book will take you.”

— M. Scott Snelten

You can't write story together if u are not on the same page

— D Cortus

I ransack public libraries, and find them full of sunk treasure.

— Virginia Woolf

Talent alone cannot make a writer. There must be a man behind the book.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

“They found Mr. Bennet still up. With a book he was regardless of time;...”

— Jane Austen

It is in literature that the concrete outlook of humanity receives its expression.

— Alfred North Whitehead

The first book that really knocked me out was the 'Brothers Karamazov.' I read it when I was a senior in high…

— Robert Hass

I had been attempting novels since I was 14 but always ran out of steam. High hopes, poor craftsmanship.

— Michel Faber

When you're in the States and you're a writer and you've got money and you walk into a bank, you're a bum…

— Norman Spinrad

There’s a difference between being alone and being lonely. Writers know that. I have never met a writer who does not crave…

— Mary Ruefle

Someone ought to publish a book about the doomsayers who keep publishing books about the end of publishing.

— Evgeny Morozov

“Access to knowledge is the superb, the supreme act of truly great civilizations. Of all the institutions that purport to do this,…

— Toni Morrison

It's a little silly to finally learn how to write at this age. But I long ago realized I was secretly sincere.

— Annie Dillard

“I am I: and I must follow that furrow, not copy another. That is the only justification for my writing, living.”

— Virginia Woolf

“If a writer manages to be fascinating about his own novels, then there are only two possibilities: either he is merely voicing…

— Amélie Nothomb

They believe that if they do get published, a wonderful new life is in store. It will turn out that deep down…

— Anne Lamott

I spent the first few years of my life in a smallish community in Queens. Back in those early days, kids could…

— Jonathan Kellerman

I wanted to write something in a voice that was unique to who I was. And I wanted something that was accessible…

— Sandra Cisneros

Expediency of literature, reason of literature, lawfulness of writing down a thought, is questioned; much is to say on both sides,and, while…

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

The messiness [in my books] is nothing like an Atwood novel. For me, the deeper subjects are secrets versus intimacy, and how…

— Edan Lepucki

That's also part of having great editors -- they can sort of be honest with you and say, "I see where you're…

— Victoria Laurie

Writing is not a great profession as a lot of writers proclaim. I write because this is something I can do. Another…

— Ha Jin

Picture books are an emotional medium. They need to make us feel something.

— Marla Frazee

Reading is like the sex act - done privately, and often in bed

— Daniel J. Boorstin

William Trevor is an author I admire; his stories are subtle and powerful, and beautifully written.

— Kim Edwards

I'm quite fond of the writer who told a beginning author, "If you've got a message, use Western Union."

— Arthur C. Clarke

So long as I have questions to which there are no answers, I shall go on writing.

— Clarice Lispector

Writing and telling are almost the same, the way I do it.

— Daniel Pinkwater

Writing is about confidence and wondering what the point of anything is.

— Nick Hornby

I have spent more time with other people's books than with my own. I do not regret it.

— Italo Calvino

Reading is a mighty engine, beside which steam and electricity sink into insignificance.

— Melvil Dewey

Some books you read. Some books you enjoy. But some books just swallow you up, heart and soul.

— Joanne Harris

I'm not trying to write for the masses. I don't care.

— Cass McCombs

“Overall, books and art were a safer escape from reality than sleep.”

— Lisa Cach

Life resembles a novel more often than novels resemble life.

— George Sand

I was never really a writer, I was always more of a performer.

— Mick Ronson

Sparky's the only guy I know who's written more books than he's read.

— Ernie Harwell

Writers who do great work must be coddled and encouraged.

— Ben Domenech