I was a terrible writer at first.

This is terrible, when a writer is bored by his own work, but it was a real bomb and had reached the point where…

— David Eddings

The first generation of CDs sounded terrible. Any chance to remaster would make the music sound better than what was already out there.

— Lou Reed

My first job was in a nursing home - a terrible place in retrospect. It was in an old house, and the residents were…

— Kim Edwards

Recently a study proved that working from a larger, less cluttered computer screen increases concentration. I could have told them that. And yes, I…

— Stacy Schiff

The first draft is usually junk. You have to work on it seven to eight times.

— Ravi Subramanian

Writing that flirts with incoherence can just as readily flounder as writing characterized by simplicity and composure. There is no reliable formula for originality,…

— Joanna Scott

I try to have something in common with my protagonists, especially when I'm writing in the first person.

— Emily Giffin

When I first started making music, it was learning other people's songs and putting them onto four-track. Like Beatles songs and stuff. When I…

— M. Ward

Everyone assumes writers spend their time lounging around, writing and occasionally striking a pose whilst having a think.

— Sara Sheridan

To refer even in passing to unpublished or struggling authors and their problems is to put oneself at some risk, so I will say…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

“People talk about books that write themselves, and it's a lie. Books don't write themselves. It takes thought and research and a backache and…

— Neil Gaiman

I might, by chance, write something just as shoddy; But then I wouldn't show it to everybody.

— Moliere

I think books in which people are really happy and things are going well are probably the most challenging novels there are to write,…

— Anna Quindlen

If I don't know who I'm writing for, I make it up and pick somebody I'm writing for. That's really the only way to…

— Craig Mazin

Regardless of the criticisms I receive from the left, the right and the middle, I think it's important to maintain a prolific writing jab,…

— Ishmael Reed