Writer Quotes · Page 449

Decide where and when you want to write. I like space, and silence is an inspiration to me.

— Cecelia Ahern

Fiction is about feeling, which is to say that short stories are about all of us.

— Tom Bailey

“Sometimes I think books are the only friends worth having.”

— Susie Derkins

Any essayist setting out on a frail apparatus of notings and jottings is a brave person.

— Diane Johnson

Every writer hopes his or her book will be its own thing.

— Elizabeth Kostova

A first book often has enough material in it for half a dozen.

— Caroline Gordon

“People read to escape reality. I write to give them realities to escape to.”

— Radcliff Lance

In writing and politicking, it's best not to think about it, just do it.

— Gore Vidal

Anyone who works in the arts knows, if you're writing a novel or a play or anything, you have to be ready…

— Colm Toibin

One of the things my success as an author has forced me to face is how dysfunctional... Maybe that's a strong word,…

— Michel Faber

There's only one ball game for any writer, and it's to keep you turning the pages. That's the whole ball game. That's…

— Mike Lupica

The best book, like the best speech, will do it all - make us laugh, think, cry and cheer - preferably in…

— Madeleine Albright

All writers of fiction will at some point find themselves abandoning a piece of work - or find themselves putting it aside,…

— Martin Amis

“A writer need not be bound by flat statement like "It was a rough sea," when verbs like tumble and roil and…

— Rebecca McClanahan

Maybe I'm not the right person to do it... but I've learned that I have some power to help stories be told…

— Jon M. Chu

I'm not sure I would have ever decided to try to write when I was forty-five if I hadn't already gotten that…

— Donald Ray Pollock

A bran' new book is a beautiful thing, all promise and fresh pages, the neatly squared spine, the brisk sense of a…

— Lewis Buzbee

All writers learn this, in time: don't show your work to other people until it's safely finished. Even discussing your unborn book…

— Lynne Truss

The library was home away from home to my mom, and my family. We had spent every Sunday afternoon there since I…

— Kami Garcia

To be a writer you have to be out in the world, you have to risk yourself in the world, you have…

— V. S. Naipaul

As a writer, I have to go to a different place now. As a person... I want to step off whatever this…

— Arundhati Roy

Usually when I put together a book like this Death-Ray hardcover or that Ghost World special edition, then I have to reread…

— Daniel Clowes

It's a critical fallacy of our times ... that a writer should 'grow,' 'change,' or 'develop.' This fallacy causes us to expect…

— Margaret Atwood

Just as composers go to concerts and artists visit galleries, writers read. You will learn, in the most enjoyable way, more about…

— Judith Barrington

I thought I'd definitely be a writer, whatever I did.

— Thomas Keneally

A famous writer who wants to continue writing has to be constantly defending himself against fame.

— Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Even the most productive writers are expert dawdlers.

— Donald Murray

A bad book with a good cover is nothing but a wooden house with a golden door.

— Mehmet Murat Ildan

“Absence does not make the heart grow fonder, where books are concerned.”

— Alexandra Petri

Writing is hard work; its also the best job Ive ever had.

— Raymond E. Feist

“When writing, I always find that you should write through an obstacle instead of editing it out.”

— Joseph Eastwood

Ultimately, the number of books always exceeds the space they are granted.

— Alberto Manguel

Writing is an exploration. You start from nothing and learn as you go.

— E. L. Doctorow

It's true that stammerers can become more adept at sentence construction.

— David Mitchell

This life, make it simple same as a book, enjoy it as you read it...

— Anonymous

CLARE: The library is cool and smells like carpet cleaner, although all I can see is marble.

— Audrey Niffenegger

The nobler the truth or sentiment, the less imports the question of authorship.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

“I might love my e-reader, but I'd never pass up the chance to browse real books.”

— Nichole Chase

Books let us into their souls and lay open to us the secrets of our own.

— William Hazlitt

I'm a writer; I'm a producer. I've certainly spread myself over a lot of different careers.

— Dan Bucatinsky