Don’t say you were a bit confused and sort of tired and a little depressed and somewhat annoyed. Be tired. Be confused.… — William Zinsser Copy Share Image
Somebody who had read Lila asked me, ‘Why do you write about the problem of loneliness?’ I said: ‘It’s not a problem.… — Marilynne Robinson Copy Share Image
“Except a living man there is nothing more wonderful than a book. A message to us from the dead - from human… — Charles Kingsley Copy Share Image
“What I really want is to be recognized as a writer; that someday, my poetry — this is an interesting paradox —… — Harley King Copy Share Image
I use a computer, but before I begin each new book I keep a notebook. I write down everything that comes to… — Judy Blume Copy Share Image
“Books. They are lined up on shelves or stacked on a table. There they are wrapped up in their jackets, lines of… — David Almond Copy Share Image
The highest compliment one can give a writer is not to say that one wholeheartedly agrees with his observations, but that he… — Glenn Greenwald Copy Share Image
the process of a book's coming to life is not fully complete until your imagination meets mine on the page. The words… — Rebecca Wells Copy Share Image
“First, her father had a minor stroke, giving Claire a glimpse of his mortality and, by extension, her own. And then she… — Jess Walter Copy Share Image
A couple months after my heart attack, fifty-seven years after I'd given it up, I started to write again. I did it… — Nicole Krauss Copy Share Image
But the penciled sheets did not seem like nor smell like the library book so she had given it up, consoling herself… — Betty Smith Copy Share Image
Writing in other voices is almost Japanese in the sense that there's a certain formality there which allows me to sidestep the… — Suzanne Vega Copy Share Image
Like, every couple of months you read, they rewrite, you come back in, they've animated more stuff - they usually videotape you… — John Goodman Copy Share Image
The show was number one in the ratings, Gordon Russell was our head writer, the story lines were magnificent and the acting… — Michael Storm Copy Share Image
“If I organize my life in such a way that I get lots of long, consecutive, uninterrupted time-chunks, I can write novels.… — Cal Newport Copy Share Image
“Listen, Stephen King used to write in the washroom of his trailer after his kids went to sleep. Harlan Ellison wrote in… — Bernard Schaffer Copy Share Image
“Kyle was busy helping Holmes figure out that the Red-Headed League was just a clever ploy pulled by some robbers to get… — Chris Grabenstein Copy Share Image
Robert Scott Leyse channels Baudelaire's Queen of Spades and Jack of Hearts, speaking darkly of dead loves, in this new book. He… — Kris Saknussemm Copy Share Image
“Books are personal, passionate. They stir emotions and spark thoughts in a manner all their own, and I;m convinced that the shattered… — Frank Bruni Copy Share Image
“That’s not my concern just now. This man—” “Grayson Thane,” Brianna supplied, more than grateful the topic had turned away from their… — Nora Roberts Copy Share Image
I don't despise 'Don Quixote,' but it is a book I don't... get. I'll have to come back it. Maybe there'll be… — Helen Oyeyemi Copy Share Image
“Dispersal was a conscious strategy of the plunderers. Only by destroying these collections could they build up new ones. Many of these… — Anders Rydell Copy Share Image
Why should not a writer be permitted to make use of the levers of fear, terror and horror because some feeble soul… — Anonymous Copy Share Image
Writing takes gall. I like to think that's true even for writers with several books under their belt, writers who have been… — Rumaan Alam Copy Share Image
“He pressed bravely ahead with his story, the outlines and preliminary versions of which by now filled two thick notebooks, reorganizing, redrafting,… — Dennis Etchison Copy Share Image
Life can be unsettling. Writers have always gravitated to conflict, unhappiness and disturbing themes. We as readers would get bored pretty quickly… — Clarence Major Copy Share Image
There's a point at which writing a book, or a long article, begins to feel like mental labor, and it's too painful… — Alexandra Fuller Copy Share Image
When I start getting close to the end of a novel, something registers in the back of my mind for the next… — Richard Russo Copy Share Image
When I wrote my fictional novels, they always had a starting point of something real. Those images that are not real are… — Karl Ove Knausgard Copy Share Image
“The woman was putting her purse in the drawer and settling down behind the desk, and I realized I had never seen… — Alan Bradley Copy Share Image
“This same library is my den — the only corner of the Hall-house where I am safe from my … cousins. They… — Walter Scott Copy Share Image
“Emotional upheavals touch every part of our lives. You don’t just lose a job, you don’t just get divorced. These things affect… — Brené Brown Copy Share Image
“I put the books I was returning on the appropriate desk, and I began looking at the shelves of new arrivals. Most… — Charlaine Harris Copy Share Image
So if I were talking to a young writer, I would recommend the cultivation of extreme indifference to both praise and blame… — John Berryman Copy Share Image
I'm obsessive. That's the word for me. I obsess - perhaps to the point where it's moderately dysfunctional. I tend to put… — Patrick Rothfuss Copy Share Image
I see myself as, first and above all, a teacher of history; next, a writer of European history; next, a commentator on… — Tony Judt Copy Share Image
If asked to list my ten favorite American fiction writers, Gail Godwin would be among them. In this, her latest . .… — Ned Rorem Copy Share Image
I find that most people know what a story is until they sit down to write one. Then they find themselves writing… — Flannery O'Connor Copy Share Image
If it were a rainy day, a drunken vigil, a fit of the spleen, a course of physic, sleepy Sunday, an ill… — Jonathan Swift Copy Share Image
The goal, I suppose, any fiction writer has, no matter what your subject, is to hit the human heart and the tear… — Tim O'Brien Copy Share Image
![“If I organize my life in such a way that I get lots of long, consecutive, uninterrupted time-chunks, I can write novels. [If I instead get interrupted a lot] what replaces it? Instead of a novel that will be around for a long time… there is a bunch of e-mail messages that I have sent out to…” quote by Cal Newport](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/90e/cal-newport-1302_books_if-i-organize-my-life-in-such-a-way-that_1000847.jpg)
