All the time, I've felt that life is a wager and that I probably was getting more out of leading a bohemian… — Christopher Hitchens Copy Share Image
In ways I don't entirely have the words for, an experience, thought or a lesson isn't real for me until I've written… — Alexandra Fuller Copy Share Image
The novel is about, for me, sustained and organized looking. I do think that people have a hunger for a sustained engagement,… — Dana Spiotta Copy Share Image
“The words you can't find, you borrow. We read to know we're not alone. We read because we are alone. We read… — Gabrielle Zevin Copy Share Image
“The novelist is like a scout commissioned to go and see what is happening in the depth of the soul. He comes… — Julien Green Copy Share Image
“I've probably put my 10,000 hours into writing, but I believe writing well is also greatly influenced by certain intangibles like mood… — Bill Loguidice Copy Share Image
Writing is not a matter of choice. Writers have to write. It is somehow in their temperament, in the blood, in tradition. — N. Scott Momaday Copy Share Image
Writing is the most demanding of callings, more harrowing than a warrior's, more lonely than a whaling captain's-that, in essence, is the… — Melvin Maddocks Copy Share Image
Do you lend books and DVDs to people? If so, don't you always regret it? All my life I have forced books… — Lynne Truss Copy Share Image
I tend to think that the onus is on the writer to engage the reader, that the reader should not be expected… — Lorin Stein Copy Share Image
I never thought I was writing for kids at all. It really shocked and unsettled me to hear kids were buying the… — Jeff Kinney Copy Share Image
“Remember that this is the first of four days of writing. In today’s writing, your goal is to write about your deepest… — James W. Pennebaker Copy Share Image
I would not be like those Authors, who forgive themselves some particular lines for the sake of a whole Poem, and vice… — Alexander Pope Copy Share Image
“Writing is 90 percent procrastination: reading magazines, eating cereal out of the box, watching infomercials. It's a matter of doing everything you… — Paul Rudnick Copy Share Image
“Don’t write your books for people who won’t like them. Give yourself wholly to the kind of book you want to write… — Paul Harding Copy Share Image
“When Suzie introduced Helen, she told the audience that one of the best things about books is that they are an interactive… — Elizabeth Berg Copy Share Image
There's that process of writing it - then you come out of your room into the sunlight, and you now have to… — Aaron Sorkin Copy Share Image
I think of reading like a balanced diet; if your sentences are too baggy, too baroque, cut back on fatty Foster Wallace,… — Zadie Smith Copy Share Image
I like writing. I get cranky when I can't. Yes, I write books back to back, and I work very hard on… — Terry Pratchett Copy Share Image
I don't travel and tell stories, because that's not the way these days. But I write my books to be read aloud,… — Louis L'Amour Copy Share Image
Not every child takes instantly to books like a duck to water, but I don’t believe there are children who hate books.… — Amanda Craig Copy Share Image
“writing is perilous, as you can’t always guarantee your words will be read in the spirit in which they were written.” — Jojo Moyes Copy Share Image
The more work you put in on your outline and getting the skeleton of your story right, the easier the process is… — Drew Goddard Copy Share Image
“Okay, let's say that a metamove or metagesture is when the author intentionally draws attention to a work's genre, its very existence… — Jill Talbot Copy Share Image
Everything I've done in my life has been by instinct. I never had any doubt I could do anything... I always knew… — Elizabeth Riddell Copy Share Image
My feeling is that I think writers in general tend to be self-conscious and it takes a bit of a leap of… — Conor Oberst Copy Share Image
“Reading manuscripts was the exact opposite of reading for grad school: it was pure instinct, with some emotion and intelligence thrown in.” — Joanna Rakoff Copy Share Image
I don't know where the idea originated that memoir writing is cathartic. For me, it's always felt like playing my own neurosurgeon,… — Koren Zailckas Copy Share Image
I have a bad habit of picking up books about drugs, but that's better than having a drug habit, I think. — Andrew VanWyngarden Copy Share Image
I think every writer doubts themselves, every day. You procrastinate because you're afraid. You're always afraid it's not going to be as… — Geoff Johns Copy Share Image
“I have never thought of writing as a profession. It is a solitary independent activity in which practice can never bestow seniority.” — John Berger Copy Share Image
I really try to write every day. It's hard, but it's my favorite thing to do, so it's usually not too, too… — Karen Russell Copy Share Image
“I would rather be a librarian, but I worry about the job security. Books may be temporary; dicks are forever.” — Gillian Flynn Copy Share Image
Graveyards are filled with books that were never written, songs that were never sung, words that were never spoken, things that were… — Mark Victor Hansen Copy Share Image
Librarians are not just gatekeepers to knowledge, they are what the American Indians used to call their special sages who preserved the… — James H. Billington Copy Share Image
Libraries are the center of our lives. There's no use going to a university if you don't live at the library. — Ray Bradbury Copy Share Image
I always really loved Russian literature, and I think Tolstoy's writing is full of a sense of melancholy and humanity, so it… — Tuppence Middleton Copy Share Image
When an older writer tries to tell a younger writer through a review what kind of career she should be pursuing, it… — Jennifer Weiner Copy Share Image
“All writers are vain, selfish, and lazy, and at the very bottom of their motives there lies a mystery.” — George Orwell Copy Share Image
Most writers want to share their essay or book much too quickly. Those who accept the pain of hard work and revising… — Lee Gutkind Copy Share Image
