I began writing seriously in my mid-20s and didnt publish…

I began writing seriously in my mid-20s and didn't publish my first book until I was 41.

— Kent Haruf

Once you publish a book, it is out of your control. You cannot dictate how people read it.

— Margaret Atwood

You want to publish with a publisher because a publisher knows how to publish a book. And you don't. You really don't.

— Patrick Rothfuss

If you're going to publish a book, you probably are going to make a fool of yourself.

— Annie Dillard

I learned how difficult it is to self-publish a book. It's complex, it's confusing, it's idiosyncratic.

— Guy Kawasaki

You can publish a poem you think is a very important poem, and you don't hear a word from anyone. [...] You can publish…

— Lawrence Ferlinghetti

Three publishers came to me at the White House after George lost and said, 'We would like to publish your book.' I said, 'Well,…

— Barbara Bush

I was a book editor for nine years. I'm familiar with the opposite experience, bracing myself for the likelihood that no one would want…

— Karen Thompson Walker

But once you publish a book, doesn’t it by definition become the realm of public discourse? Otherwise, wouldn’t we just write books and print…

— Jonathan Evison

It takes a long time to publish a book.

— Kenneth Koch

After you publish a book, you become a writer and you're supposed to take it very seriously. You're supposed to show up at your…

— Gary Shteyngart

Just because everyone CAN publish a book these days, doesn't mean everyone SHOULD. The world doesn't need 1000 knock-offs of 50 Shades of Grey.…

— Oliver Gaspirtz

When you publish a book, you do so in part to end the silence. All censorship is silence. I would never, as an author,…

— Stephen Chbosky

Nothing is a matter of age. It's really in the person because you can publish book after book after book and still want that…

— Lynne Tillman

I didn't say I have to be a writer, but I did say that I needed to publish at least one book.

— Tomi Adeyemi