“You don't have to get into writing – it's not like a pair of jeans... The only way to write is to… — Jeanette Winterson Copy Share Image
I gave up writing children's books. I wanted to escape from them as I had once wanted to escape from 'Punch': as… — A. A. Milne Copy Share Image
The library should be a commonplace to every one. To use it should be as natural when one needs news or knowledge,… — John Cotton Dana Copy Share Image
Faith is a talent, and it goes the way of all your talents. Getting old is the subtraction of your powers. Which… — Martin Amis Copy Share Image
Start early and work hard. A writer's apprenticeship usually involves writing a million words (which are then discarded) before he's almost ready… — David Eddings Copy Share Image
ONE BLOOD is a richly detailed, intricately woven tale rendered in lush, evocative prose. This memorable debut heralds Qwantu Amaru as a… — Brandon Massey Copy Share Image
An aging writer has the not insignificant satisfaction of a shelf of books behind him that, as they wait for their ideal… — John Updike Copy Share Image
I set myself 600 words a day as a minimum output, regardless of the weather, my state of mind or if I'm… — Arthur Hailey Copy Share Image
I don't think writers really choose their subjects. I think the subjects, the topics, the themes, choose us, and then we make… — Amy Bloom Copy Share Image
I'm not sure if a writer should talk about themes. Themes arrive out of the deeper structure and concerns, but to me,… — David Means Copy Share Image
“These weird thoughts come into my head, and I don't even really want to think about it, but I can't let go… — Kevin Wilson Copy Share Image
Even now, she wished she could write a note, push it across the table, and go away to her room. But she… — Garth Nix Copy Share Image
Nonfiction is both easier and harder to write than fiction. It's easier because the facts are already laid out before you, and… — Amy Bloom Copy Share Image
“Have you really read all those books in your room?" She laughed, "Oh God no. I've maybe read a third of 'em.… — John Green Copy Share Image
“That was a page read and turned over; I was busy now with this new page, and when the engine whistled on… — Jack London Copy Share Image
There has never been a book like this. At once a poetics of place, a work of deep history, a bildungsroman, and… — Melissa Holbrook Pierson Copy Share Image
What writing ROOM taught me was that I know exactly how to be the perfect mother, but I'm not willing to do… — Emma Donoghue Copy Share Image
If you write a novel alone you sit and you weave a little narrative. And it's O.K., but it's of no account. — V. S. Naipaul Copy Share Image
Writing is not "the establishment of a professional reputation" as if one were a doctor or lawyer; it is not properly in… — Elizabeth Hardwick Copy Share Image
I write for myself. I don't write because I have a record coming out. I write because I want to. I need… — Hunter Hayes Copy Share Image
People say, 'You're like Dickens', but I'm not like Dickens. Zadie Smith is a Dickensian writer because she's writing about society now,… — Sarah Waters Copy Share Image
Most books, after all, are ephemeral; their specifics, several years later, inspire about as much interest as daily battle reports from the… — Stephen Jay Gould Copy Share Image
Fine writers should split hairs together, and sit side by side, like friendly apes, to pick the fleas from each others fur. — Logan Pearsall Smith Copy Share Image
“I keep going;I keep writing because I know something good will happen, and I want to see it when it happens.” — Millicent Ashby Copy Share Image
I was writing an earnest novel about cruises in the Caribbean and I just started writing 'Bridget Jones' to get some money,… — Helen Fielding Copy Share Image
Copywriters on Madison Avenue constantly grapple with the question of where their work sits on the totem pole of 'real' writing. — David Droga Copy Share Image
I wrote a novel because I had a yen to do it. I believe this is sufficient reason to set out to… — Umberto Eco Copy Share Image
“Did you ever read The Cat's Revenge , by Claude Balls? Did you ever read The Passionate Russian , by E. Nawdor… — John O'Hara Copy Share Image
Of course, authors can still burn their manuscripts - but once something is out in the world, especially if it ever saw… — Maria Konnikova Copy Share Image
“Nor would I willingly miss the early darkness and the pleasant firelight tea and the long evenings among my books.” — Elizabeth von Arnim Copy Share Image
One of my passions is that children enjoy their time at school - and reading for pleasure can be an important part… — Charles Clarke Copy Share Image
I go through periods of not writing. Until there's something I can't find in the world that I need, so I write. — Daphne Gottlieb Copy Share Image
Make notes—I’ve lost more material than I’ve ever written. Contrary to popular opinion, it’s not still up there in one’s brain. It’s… — Judith Guest Copy Share Image
There's just something "off" about equating the act of spending three years writing a book with the act of someone exploiting themselves… — Marie Calloway Copy Share Image
I have two ideas for novels at the moment, neither of them all that conventional, but I'm not ready to choose between… — Jonathan Coe Copy Share Image
I am a writer who has a policy to allocate 90 percent of my time for research and the remaining 10 percent to write. — Andrea Hirata Copy Share Image
“Literature is not at the service of the government; on the contrary, governments should do everything in their power to create a… — Murong Xuecun Copy Share Image
One of the books I remember reading when I was young and always thought would be a great role to play is… — Yvonne Strahovski Copy Share Image
I had a writing professor at Brandeis who told me I'd never make it - and when I sold my first novel… — Caroline Leavitt Copy Share Image
“Books say: she did this because. Life says: she did this. Books are where things are explained to you; life is where… — Julian Barnes Copy Share Image
