Books Quotes by Ann Patchett

I think someone gets stitches in all my novels.

— Ann Patchett

Anyone who doesn't read doesn't have any business writing.

— Ann Patchett

I'd like to read all of Proust.

— Ann Patchett

That's important to me, to recommend books.

— Ann Patchett

It's always better to have too much to read than not enough.

— Ann Patchett

Even though I didn't know I was applying for the job, I have somehow become the spokesperson for independent book stores.

— Ann Patchett

My novels are very much the same, as I think many people's novels are.

— Ann Patchett

I don't write for an audience, I don't think whether my book will sell, I don't sell it before I finish writing…

— Ann Patchett

I'm just such a Luddite, and I want to write books about Luddites.

— Ann Patchett

Sometimes if there's a book you really want to read, you have to write it yourself.

— Ann Patchett

I always feel it is a shortcoming of mine as a reader and as a writer that I frankly need to like…

— Ann Patchett

I can't write the book I want to write, but I can and will write the book I am capable of writing.

— Ann Patchett

I am the person who is appropriating stories that are not mine and turning them into a book.

— Ann Patchett

My novels are very much the same, as I think many people's novels are. No matter how hard I try to do…

— Ann Patchett

“Novel writing, I soon discovered, is like channel swimming: a slow and steady stroke over a long distance in a cold, dark…

— Ann Patchett

“I decided I was going to make up a novel, and that the novel was going to get me out of the…

— Ann Patchett

When well told, a story captured the subtle movement of change. If a novel was a map of a country, a story…

— Ann Patchett

No matter how much we love a book, the experience of reading it isn't complete until we can give it to someone…

— Ann Patchett

I love telling people what to read. It's my favorite thing in the world, to buy books and force books on people,…

— Ann Patchett

“Writing a novel and living a life are very much the same thing. The secret is finding the balance between going out…

— Ann Patchett

“I can’t write the book I want to write, but I can and will write the book I am capable of writing.…

— Ann Patchett

“novel excerpts rarely benefit from group critique. It’s one thing to get all those opinions when you’ve finished, but when you’re still…

— Ann Patchett

“if I wanted to be a better writer, I was the only person who could push myself to do it. It was…

— Ann Patchett

reading is a private act, private even from the person who wrote the book. Once the novel is out there, the author…

— Ann Patchett

That's one of the many things about having the bookstore that I adore. I can walk into the store and say to…

— Ann Patchett

“I wrote the last sentence of The Patron Saint of Liars in early April and stumbled out of my apartment and into…

— Ann Patchett

Reading fiction not only develops our imagination and creativity, it gives us the skills to be alone. It gives us the ability…

— Ann Patchett

“I could have had one life but insteads I had another because of this book my grandmother protected. What a miracle is…

— Ann Patchett

I was very influenced by The Magic Mountain. It's a book that had a huge impact on me. I loved that as…

— Ann Patchett

“...fiction writing is like duck hunting. You go to the right place at the right time with the right dog. You get…

— Ann Patchett

“Forgiveness. The ability to forgive oneself. Stop here for a few breaths and think about this because it is the key to…

— Ann Patchett

I don't want to stand with somebody's praise. Whereas now when people come up to me, they say, "I love the bookstore"…

— Ann Patchett

I have been shown so much kindness in my life, so for me to write books about good, kind people seems completely…

— Ann Patchett

I am not mature enough as a reader to enjoy a book in which I hate all the people.

— Ann Patchett

I craft everything in the beginning. I know where the characters are going before I start writing the book.

— Ann Patchett

I'm disappointed by well-written novels that only deal with two or three people.

— Ann Patchett

“Over the years I have come to realize that I write the book I want to read, the one I can't find…

— Ann Patchett

I think people become consumed with selling a book when they need to be consumed with writing it.

— Ann Patchett

I read books I hate all the time, and I don't mention them or talk about them.

— Ann Patchett

I've been writing the same book my whole life - that you're in one family, and all of a sudden, you're in…

— Ann Patchett