Part of my problem as a young writer was that I was too much a New Yorker, always second-guessing the 'market.' I… — Edmund White Copy Share Image
“Our job, then, is two-fold: to focus on our own failings as writers. But also to speak more forcefully as advocates for… — Steve Almond Copy Share Image
Let us begin by clearing up the old confusion between theman who loves learning and the man who loves reading, and point… — Virginia Woolf Copy Share Image
Friends and family do not believe you write fiction. They truly believe that every word you write is either autobiographical or based… — Liane Moriarty Copy Share Image
“We grow up with such an idealistic view on how our life should be; love, friendships, a career or even the place… — Nikki Rowe Copy Share Image
One of the greatest gifts my brother and I received from my mother was her love of literature and language. With their… — Caroline Kennedy Copy Share Image
In the candle's flickering light, the library's thousands of books emerged from the shadows, and for a moment Nicholas could not help… — Trenton Lee Stewart Copy Share Image
Most English writers are not interested in change but in the social novel. That demands a static backdrop. I'm intensely interested in… — J. G. Ballard Copy Share Image
From a child I was fond of reading, and all the little money that came into my hands was ever laid out… — Benjamin Franklin Copy Share Image
You can take a book to the beach without worrying about sand getting in its works. You can take it to bed… — Nicholas G. Carr Copy Share Image
When the first-rate author wants an exquisite heroine or a lovely morning, he finds that all the superlatives have been worn shoddy… — F. Scott Fitzgerald Copy Share Image
If you're somebody who writes songs or writes fiction, a writer that people pay for your opinion in any way, you shouldn't… — Jason Isbell Copy Share Image
A man who reads a book for no particular profit becomes, while he reads, a gentleman, a man of leisure, a dandy… — John Updike Copy Share Image
When I am teaching, I first give out Tolstoy's 'Childhood,' his first published book. It is so transparent. It gives you exactly… — Claire Messud Copy Share Image
You must know everything well before you can know what to discard. You must cover pages with material you will not finally… — Dorothy Bryant Copy Share Image
Readers, on the other hand, have at least 7.5 books going all the time. Actually, the number of books a reader takes… — Calvin Miller Copy Share Image
It seems to me one cannot sit down in that place [the Round Reading room of the British Museum] without a heart… — William Makepeace Thackeray Copy Share Image
“Everything I have written up to now is trifling compared to that which I would like to write and would write with… — Anton Chekhov Copy Share Image
Héctor Tobar's accomplished first novel affords a perspective that is overdue and urgently needed in North American literature- -an insider's vision of… — Stuart Dybek Copy Share Image
“The one she needed most kept aloof, for she was, to hear her talk, changing her selves as quickly as she drove… — Virginia Woolf Copy Share Image
During every book, I have a nervous breakdown. Usually it's about two thirds of the way through the book - I'm just… — Andrew Sean Greer Copy Share Image
Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people who never knew each other, citizens of distant epochs. Books break… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
“Literature works from mind to mind and is more progenitive. It is at once more universal and more poignantly particular. If it… — J.R.R. Tolkien Copy Share Image
Maybe it stems from my newspaper-reporting days, but I took notes the whole time - getting the call, how I felt. As… — Jennifer Weiner Copy Share Image
I always figure there are novels and short stories, and in those, I'm God. No one tells me what to do. I… — Neil Gaiman Copy Share Image
Write for yourself, not for a perceived audience. If you do, you'll mostly fall flat on your face, because it's impossible to… — Wilbur Smith Copy Share Image
I was given the ability to create stories and characters. That's my part of the long chain of writers, publishers, agents, booksellers,… — Karl Marlantes Copy Share Image
I think there is no way to write about being alone. To write is to tell something to somebody to communicate to… — Ursula K. Le Guin Copy Share Image
Reviewers try to square the antics of a writer's life with the antics in the fiction. Even satirical verbal play is too… — Joanna Scott Copy Share Image
“Admittedly any such dyadic comparison risks oversimplifying the menu of eligible strategies, but the risk is lessened when one bears in mind… — Anonymous Copy Share Image
One hasn't become a writer until one has distilled writing into a habit, and that habit has been forced into an obsession.… — Niyi Osundare Copy Share Image
The older I'm getting, the more I'm getting a writer's block or something. It's harder to come up with an idea that… — Alex G Copy Share Image
I like the desperado aspect of essays, the free lance, that mercenary kind of thing, so I just do it, without asking… — Charles D'Ambrosio Copy Share Image
“Despite the fact that he loves books and owns a bookstore, A.J. does not particularly care for writers. He finds them to… — Gabrielle Zevin Copy Share Image
My books happen. They tend to blast in from nowhere, seize me by the throat, and howl 'Write me! Write me now!'… — Robin McKinley Copy Share Image
One of the nice things about the world of filmmaking is that you make friends in the business. Sometimes directors feel a… — Tom Stoppard Copy Share Image
It's not even my job to educate, but what I do is try to facilitate by creating a book that works on… — Graeme Base Copy Share Image
“Nonfiction at its best is like fashioning a cabinet. It can be elegant and very beautiful but it can never be sculpture.… — Peter Matthiessen Copy Share Image
“At its best, the sensation of writing is that of any unmerited grace. It is handed to you, but only if you… — Annie Dillard Copy Share Image
Freedom to tell any story I want, with all the imaginary tools of my trade, is why I love writing novels. I… — Marjorie Liu Copy Share Image
![“It seems to me one cannot sit down in that place [the Round Reading room of the British Museum] without a heart full of grateful reverence. I own to have said my grace at the table, and to have thanked Heaven for my English birthright, freely to partake of these beautiful books, and speak the…” quote by William Makepeace Thackeray](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/21d/william-makepeace-thackeray-74_beautiful_it-seems-to-me-one-cannot-sit-down-in-th_291707.jpg)
![“Maybe it stems from my newspaper-reporting days, but I took notes the whole time - getting the call, how I felt. As soon as I put pen to paper, it became a story [Hunger Heart], not something happening to me but something I was recording.” quote by Jennifer Weiner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/45f/jennifer-weiner-2358_felt_maybe-it-stems-from-my-newspaper-reporti_219469.png)
