Books Quotes by Tom Robbins

If you want to make a name for yourself, the oldest trick in the book is to attack what everybody else reveres.

— Tom Robbins

“In the novels he was to write as an adult, transformation (along with liberation and celebration) was a major theme.”

— Tom Robbins

almost any object, including this book you hold, can turn up as Exhibit A in a murder trial.

— Tom Robbins

If the novelist isn't surprised by where his book ends up, he or she probably hasn't written anything worth remembering.

— Tom Robbins

“A book no more contains reality than a clock contains time.”

— Tom Robbins

Transformation, liberation and celebration are the themes of all my novels.

— Tom Robbins

Writing a novel is not so much a project as a journey, a voyage, an adventure.

— Tom Robbins

A lot of aspiring writers are all ready to write a novel, but they don't know how to write sentences.

— Tom Robbins

I never outline. I don't work from an outline. I have no idea where the book is going. I mean, even two-thirds…

— Tom Robbins

“(Claude and Marcel LeFever were speaking in French. This simultaneous English translation is being beamed to the reader via literary satellite.)”

— Tom Robbins

“Courage is where you find it. Bravery that comes from a bottle-- or from book or from a sermon-- lacks the full…

— Tom Robbins

“Your author has found love to be the full trip, emotionally speaking; the grand tour: fall in love, visit both Heaven and…

— Tom Robbins

“Evidently, I'd suffered an epiphany: the subconscious realization that when it comes to coolness, nothing the human race has ever invented is…

— Tom Robbins

One of my books is a hallucinogen, an aphrodisiac, a mood elevator, an intellectual garage door opener, and a metaphysical trash compactor.…

— Tom Robbins

The female characters in my books tend to be independent, frisky, spunky, witty, emotionally strong, erotically daring, spiritually oriented and intellectually generous;…

— Tom Robbins

I would only read the novels that people classify as 'beach books' if I were being held prisoner and the only alternative…

— Tom Robbins

Serious reading is hardly a social activity and every halfway serious reader is perpetually subject to a form of coitus interruptus. Family…

— Tom Robbins

A book no more contains reality than a clock contains time. A book may measure so-called reality as a clock measures so-called…

— Tom Robbins

Most really good fiction is compelled into being. It comes from a kind of uncalculated innocence. You need not have your ending…

— Tom Robbins

The author isn't altogether certain that there is any such thing as exaggeration. Our brains permit us to use such a wee…

— Tom Robbins

Bland writing - timid, antiseptic, vanilla writing - is nearly as unhealthy as the brutal and dark. Instead of sipping, say, elixir,…

— Tom Robbins

There were no mail-order catalogues in 1492. Marco Polo's journal was the wish book of Renaissance Europe. Then, Columbus sailed the ocean…

— Tom Robbins

Sometimes, though, I feel that pushing books is a whole lot like pushing medicine. Think of books as pills. I have pills…

— Tom Robbins

Whenever I finish a book, I go off and have some kind of adventure. Having had an adventure in my writing chair…

— Tom Robbins

“I was a medic in the Army. I really should have become a doctor. Sometimes, though, I feel that pushing books is…

— Tom Robbins

I think too much is known about me already. I think biographical information can get in the way of the reading experience.…

— Tom Robbins

“Serious reading is hardly a social activity and every halfway serious reader is perpetually subject to a form of coitus interruptus. Family…

— Tom Robbins

“A little boy, he can play like he's a fireman or a cop--although fewer and fewer are pretending to be cops, thank…

— Tom Robbins

“I’m always astonished when readers suggest that I must write my novels while high on pot or (God forbid!) LSD. Apparently, there…

— Tom Robbins

“This sentence is made of lead (and a sentence of lead gives a reader an entirely different sensation from one made of…

— Tom Robbins

“...on a number of occasions this book has made reference to magic, and each time you've shaken your head, muttering such criticisms…

— Tom Robbins

“Now, my all-time favorite accolade from a book reviewer was when Fernanda Pivano, Italy’s best-known critic, wrote in a leading Italian newspaper…

— Tom Robbins

I've decided to take advantage of outsourcing. My next novel will be written by a couple of guys in Bangalore, India.

— Tom Robbins

A lot of my work comes from what in Asia is called the 'mind of wonder.' There is not a lot of…

— Tom Robbins

When a culture is being dumbed down as effectively as ours is, its narrative arts (literature, film, theatre) seem to vacillate between…

— Tom Robbins

I finish the book so I can see how it's going to end. I write that first sentence, and if it's the…

— Tom Robbins

“I don't think that a novel is supposed to be a guide book to happiness any more than it's supposed to be…

— Tom Robbins