Writer Quotes · Page 522

A good book is like a good friend. Time spent together is never wasted.

— Bernajoy Vaal

For years, I never really pondered how I came to be a writer from where I came from.

— Nick Tosches

Writing at least is a silent meditation even though you’re going a hundred miles an hour.

— Jack Kerouac

Reading is probably another way of being in a place.

— Jose Saramago

The reader really has to step up to the plate and read a short story.

— Tobias Wolff

“Sometimes I write just to find out what happens next.”

— G. David Walker

I think the hardest thing, really, is trying not to write.

— Kevin Young

It's doubtful that anyone with an internet connection at his workplace is writing good fiction.

— Jonathan Franzen

You can't really give away anything in your book ... should be exciting, it's my life, and I'm a cool and exciting guy.

— Usain Bolt

The vital accessories to my work are my reference books, such as the complete Shakespeare and a prayer book, and a large…

— Beryl Bainbridge

A School Library is Like the Bat Cave: it's a safe fortress in a chaotic world, a source of knowledge and the…

— Tom Angleberger

“You're such a bookworm," Fenn said, shaking his head as he counted the books in my hand. "No," I corrected "I just…

— Candace Knoebel

It's a very powerful, emotional thing to read a book, and to reduce it to a series of questions in a test…

— Kate DiCamillo

I think that any writer who is commercial, who sells a lot of books, has to face criticism. Because the more hermetic…

— Isabel Allende

Your book grows. The early part of your book is growing still while you are writing the later part of your book.

— Walter Mosley

Especially since having children, a lot of the time if you ask me, 'Have you read that book?' the answer would be…

— Claire Messud

“The writer,' said Donald Barthelme, 'is one who, embarking upon a task, does not know what to do.' In this mode of…

— George Saunders

I was only ever part of 'Lost' - a very small part of an extremely talented writers' room, where as a writer,…

— Brian K. Vaughan

My writing partner and I usually write separately, because if we write together we are liable to go a little nuts. The…

— Jesse Armstrong

I don't think you could teach someone to be a genius, but you can certainly teach them to not make rookie mistakes…

— Michael Chabon

I'm a fiction writer, and I do write essays, but I am not a poet. And I absolutely reject the phrase 'woman…

— Cynthia Ozick

“Something good happened to my writing when stopped being afraid to do something simple, for the fear that people might think I…

— Carrie Newcomer

“I really didn't write it with any intention of being published. If I'd known that was going to happen, I would have…

— Gideon Defoe

The ordinary literary man, even though he be an eminent historian, is ill-fitted to be a mentor in affairs of government. For...…

— Woodrow Wilson

I instantly chucked my academic ambitions and began writing fiction full-time.

— Peter Straub

One cannot choose what he writes - one can only choose to face it.

— Luigi Pirandello

A good writer is basically a story teller, not a scholar or a redeemer of mankind.

— Isaac Bashevis Singer

You might 'write from the heart,' but you'd better polish with your brain.

— Margaret Atwood

All good American literature is always interested in people who are ambiguously heroic, like Gatsby.

— John Green

“For under scrutiny you will find that even an open book can have a surprise scribbled in its margins.”

— Violet Haberdasher

“Like so many writers - I need to keep my butt in the chair.”

— Tina Gayle

A book store is a treasure chest. Every time you walk in one, you strike gold.

— Regina Brett

Bob Bly is among the most accomplished self-employed copywriters in recent years.

— Steve Slaunwhite

I am living with my limitations and have no intention of becoming a writer.

— Pernell Roberts

“It is not up to the writer to create a masterpiece. That is what readers do.”

— Bart J. Gilbertson

Librarian is a service occupation. Gas station attendant of the mind.

— Richard Powers

That is a good book which is opened with expectation, and closed with delight and profit.

— Amos Bronson Alcott

I get up in the morning, torture a typewriter until it screams, then stop.

— Clarence Budington Kelland

“Do writers of fiction tell lies or just tall stories?”

— Clive Owen Barry

“A writer hopes never to offend, but if he must, pray let him offend the gods before the reviewers.”

— Chila Woychik