Writer Quotes · Page 429

“Writing - the act of one person giving a piece of their soul to another.”

— Anonymous

A novel is challenging, because you have more story than you need and you have to select and narrow.

— Peter Hedges

“The Baby Name book can be a very dangerous tool in the hands of a prolific author.”

— Michelle M. Pillow

I'm much more interested in allowing a story to happen, and people find whatever meaning is in there.

— Colum McCann

“Books were a safe place, a world apart from my own.”

— Kiera Cass

When you read, don't just consider what the author thinks, consider what you think

— Tom Schulman

Landlord of a bordello! The company's good and the mornings are quiet, which is the best time to write.

— William Faulkner

In Colombia is where I discovered myself as a writer.

— Nicky Jam

“Why are you doing this?” One of his hands caressed the books. “Because books are made to be read,” I told him.…

— Katherine Allred

Generally speaking, it has been my ambition to write as a good old nurse will speak when she tells fairy tales.

— Joseph Jacobs

People wanted to get me published, and my early work was so weird that they weren't getting anywhere. I thought, okay, I'll…

— Nell Zink

She said writting novels was like childbirth: if you truly remembered how awful it got, you'd never do it again.

— Sarah Dessen

Polishing: a useful lesson for the hopeful writer. You say your tormented prose doesn't read as well as mine? Neither does mine,…

— Piers Anthony

When I travel, I can leave everything at home apart from books. I curate my holiday reading rigorously and would be devastated…

— Lisa Jewell

Well, it's so hard for books to take off. You give years of your life to something that probably won't happen, so…

— David Nicholls

Rewrite, rewrite, rewrite, don't be precious about your first draft, it's an architectural blueprint to a whole building, be your own worst…

— Tobsha Learner

Whatever people may say about my books - and it always amazes me when people don't like them, but sometimes they don't…

— Geoff Dyer

Something mystical happens to every writer who goes to the Masters for the first time, some sort of emotional experience that results…

— Dan Jenkins

One nice thing about putting the thing away for a couple of months before looking at it is that you start appreciate…

— Steven Brust

“The best fiction is often how we interpret our own lives and what we see as our common due. It is created…

— Anne Edwards

“Walking across campus made me feel sad, and I thought to myself, I wasn't happy there. Then, after reading, we walked past…

— Siri Hustvedt

When Mats came in the evenings, they would drink tea in the kitchen while reading their books and talking about them. If…

— Tove Jansson

The more books there are on shelves, the more will be sold. Once you get to the level of The Secret and…

— Anonymous

I've found a bit of success in my career, and I'm very relieved by it, but the success that comes after a…

— Lauren Grodstein

I still buy actual books. The smell, having it in your hands - there's really no substitute.

— Nathan Fillion

This strong sense of who I am that I've always had, since I was very young, is what makes me write.

— Quentin S. Crisp

Anything said off the cuff has usually been written on it first.

— Robin Skelton

Anything in literature, including memory, is second-hand,

— Herta Muller

“How can you be nervous? Don't you see? We're in a library.”

— Eilis O'Neal

For me, closing libraries is the equivalent of eating your seed corn to save a little money.

— Neil Gaiman

Once writing has become your major vice and greatest pleasure only death can stop it.

— Ernest Hemingway

When writers die they become books, which is, after all, not too bad an incarnation.

— Jorge Luis Borges

I try to have each book be an antidote to the one before.

— Colson Whitehead

Writer's block? Don't worry about it. Either it goes away or you die.

— Joe Haldeman

Writing is all a lottery -- I have been a loser by the works of the greatest men of the age.

— Tobias Smollett

If you want to write good copy, you must be where the things are.

— Anonymous

I'm not a nerd, don't plan to be a nerd and read books - which I can't do at all.

— Virat Kohli

In picture-making the writer is the most important cog in the wheel.

— Samuel Goldwyn

The last thing one discovers in composing a work is what to put first.

— Anonymous

I never write. Never! I do not even remember if I can write.

— Young Thug