Writer Quotes · Page 426

“Through books Cathy and I have lived a zillion lives . . . our vicarious way to feel alive.”

— V.C. Andrews

Goat curry and a female librarian, that's what I'm in the mood for.

— Ben Katchor

“A novel is a kind of conversion experience. We come away from it changed.”

— Katherine Paterson

Writing is something that I am ever driven to do, and concerning which I am never satisfied.

— Nora Waln

Another thing all writers have in common is we're all observers. We pay attention to detail.

— Judy Blume

I would hope that my writing's cleaner than it was when I started.

— Nora Roberts

“Every writer is the amanuensis to their characters”

— Lucy Coats

Here's a story that I really want to tell about Bo Diddley at the OK corral.

— Warren Zevon

We all have our opinions. But I suspect that writers are actually less worth heeding, because they regard themselves as so uniquely…

— Simon Hoggart

How many words a day do I write? Between six and seven thousand. And how many hours does that take? Three on…

— John Creasey

It is by sitting down to write every morning that he becomes a writer. Those who do not do this remain amateurs.

— Gerald Brenan

I do not feel obliged in my reading. I read to be entertained and to relax, and to go into another world,…

— Nora Roberts

“I love and enjoy writing. Writing is a form of daily communication. It a communication to higher divine power.”

— Lailah Gifty Akita

The trouble with the publishing business is that too many people who have half a mind to write a book do so.

— William Targ

Writing fiction is ... an endless and always defeated effort to capture some quality of life without killing it.

— Rose Wilder Lane

Clear, crisp, and compelling. . . . Mitzvah Girls is a thoughtful look at the world of Jewish girls who grow up…

— David Wolpe

I can think of no other writer who so thoroughly embodies the Jamesian spirit as Alison Lurie. Like him she can excavate…

— Edmund White

I don't think we should see the world of books as fundamentally separate from the world of the Internet. Yes, the Internet…

— John Green

In the course of a life devoted less to living than to reading, I have verified many times that literary intentions and…

— Jorge Luis Borges

“The essential criterion for running a bookstore is less "Do you like books?" than "Do you like people?" Ironically, we find that…

— Wendy Welch

“I believe in the absolute and unlimited liberty of reading. I believe in wandering through the stacks and picking out the first…

— Jay Allison

No one writes better historical fiction than Steven Pressfield. The Afghan War that was waged by Alexander the Great 2000 years ago…

— Vince Flynn

I always think the most important thing for a writer is a deadline, and it's the same with a house. They say…

— Adriana Trigiani

Writing a story I am just trying to find some little interesting thing to start out with: something small, even trivial. Preferably…

— George Saunders

A capacity and taste for reading gives access to whatever has already been discovered by others.

— Abraham Lincoln

My first novel was a critical success in a matter of weeks.

— Christine Leunens

There never yet have been, nor are there now, too many good books.

— Martin Luther

Being the director - way fancier than 'just' being the writer. People call you 'talent.'

— Marti Noxon

I don't think anyone should be banned. If you don't like a book, set it aside.

— Vikram Seth

“Giving a child a book is better than any toy you can buy, even a fidget spinner.”

— Sonia Cunningham Leverette

Keep in mind that books, like art museums, are not always geared to the desires of the reader.

— Tyler Cowen

“Perhaps, at heart, I am a storyteller; and the universe is my canvas.”

— Max L. Phillips

Fiction has to be plausible. All history has to do is happen.

— Harry Turtledove

Writing is very hard work and knowing what you're doing the whole time.

— Shelby Foote

I'd leave all the hurry, the noise, and the fray, for a house full of books, and a garden of flowers.

— Andrew Lang

Just as a good rain clears the air, a good writing day clears the psyche.

— Julia Cameron

Everything maybe pre-written but nothing is rewritten.

— Anonymous

“If I knew what I was thinking [...] I would never have become a writer.”

— Amélie Nothomb

I think I'm more intensely opinionated when I speak; more agreeably balanced when I write.

— Adam Gopnik

If you write really good material, the rest just falls into place. There's really no trick to it.

— Seth Grahame-Smith