There are more differences among our manuscripts than…

To refer even in passing to unpublished or struggling authors and their problems is to put oneself at some risk, so I will say…

— Kingsley Amis

My first three manuscripts were epic fantasy - like high fantasy - and then the fourth one was a historical fantasy about Mozart as…

— Marie Lu

A thing may in itself be the finest piece of writing one has ever done, and yet have absolutely no place in the manuscript…

— Carolyn Forche

To me, all the juice of a book is in an unpublished manuscript, and the published book is like a dead tree - just…

— Christina Stead

If Elmore Leonard met Jim Thompson down a dark alley at midnight they might emerge a week later with thick beards, bloodshot eyes and…

— Eoin Colfer

The usual way - through a long series of rejections, revising my manuscripts, and kept trying again and again. Finally I was fortunate enough…

— Danielle Steel

I love the process of cracking the spine for the first time and slowly sinking into a book. That will soon seem old-fashioned, I'm…

— Edwidge Danticat

When you print out your manuscript and read it, marking up with a pen, it sometimes feels like a criminal returning to the scene…

— Don Roff

In the usual way I submitted manuscripts to publishers. This was not so much a feeling that I should be published as a wish…

— Tanith Lee

Children ask better questions than adults. "May I have a cookie?" "Why is the sky blue?" and "What does a cow say?" are far…

— Fran Lebowitz

We have the Annunciation, the Conception, the Birth and the Adoration, as described in the first and second chapters of Luke's gospel; and as…

— Samuel Sharpe

I began writing 'Matterhorn' in 1975 and for more than 30 years I kept working on my novel in my spare time, unable to…

— Karl Marlantes

I take editing seriously. It's a joy to edit. I always hand a manuscript to several editors and can't wait to get back their…

— Steve Martin

Book burning is a charming old custom, hallowed by antiquity. It has been practiced for centuries by fascists, communists, atheists, school children, rival authors,…

— Richard Armour

I kept writing short stories and sending out my manuscript, and it kept coming back like a bad penny. It was rejected all over…

— Debra Dean