Writer Quotes · Page 436

Philip Roth has been a huge influence on me. The early books I read in my teens and twenties.

— Nathan Englander

Mystery fiction was considered a stepchild of literature.

— Evan Hunter

Decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves.

— Anna Quindlen

Writing always means hiding something in such a way that it then is discovered.

— Italo Calvino

There was a time when the world acted on books; now books act on the world.

— Joseph Joubert

Every hour you spend writing is an hour you don't spend worrying about your writing.

— James Scott Bell

I can never leave a bookstore without buying a book. I read four or five at a time.

— Mireille Guiliano

“The best part about being a writer is getting the last word.”

— Shannon L. Alder

Ironically, in today's marketplace successful nonfiction has to be unbelievable, while successful fiction must be believable.

— Jerry B. Jenkins

Whoever would write books? It's suffering as well as greatly satisfying. And certainly there's suffering in the sense that you don't know…

— Alice Mattison

All writers want to know that someone is reading their work, taking them seriously. It provides a kind of moral support.

— Felice Picano

Literature wasn't intended to be about perfect people, it was about flaws, very real and very deep human flaws.

— Erin McCarthy

I have been writing for 50 years and readers still read my first book from when I was in the Marine Corps.

— Leon Uris

“Indy Rivers got things done. Maybe she was a fictional character, but they were in a fictional place, in a fictional situation.…

— Mira Grant

I read more widely. I made friends more widely. I wore more red. I stayed home on Sundays. I did things that…

— Barbara Brown Taylor

“...we can pretend that the book in question is not Mr. West’s but mine, made mine by the madness of my reading.”

— J.M. Coetzee

I started writing while I was a little boy. Maybe it's because I was reading a lot of books I admired, and…

— Naguib Mahfouz

“Writing. It’s easy work. The equipment isn’t expensive, and you can pursue this occupation anywhere. You make your own hours, mess around…

— Denis Johnson

“While some dismiss the Bible as a dusty old book, I view its pages as portals to adventure. Not only is the…

— Margaret Feinberg

“The thing is, Sara, writing's scary. You have to be prepared to go deep…And when your brain's shouting, 'No, no, no, I'm…

— Felicity Everett

Certainly it is valuable to a trained writer to crash in an aircraft which burns. He learns several important things very quickly.…

— Ernest Hemingway

“Writing isn't about making money, getting famous, getting dates, getting laid, or making friends. In the end, it's about enriching the lives…

— Stephen King

I think any writer is a fool if he doesn't do it for money. There needs to be some kind of incentive…

— Elmore Leonard

There was a time when the average reader read a novel simply for the moral he could get out of it, and…

— Flannery O'Connor

But that’s one advantage of fiction, you can speed up time.

— Julian Barnes

“Books were safer than other people anyway. (...) I lived in books more than I lived anywhere else.”

— Neil Gaiman

I wish I could write. I get these ideas but I never seem to be able to put them in words.

— F. Scott Fitzgerald

“His autobiography is Life on Air: Memoirs of a Broadcaster.”

— Gareth Huw Davies

Throw down your books, you have nothing to lose except your grades.

— Movie

“I will tell everyone I know to come [to the library]. This place saves lives.”

— Gina Sheridan

When I write for myself, I think about myself and draw from my own experience.

— Bonnie McKee

I live and I write, and I write and I live. It's kind of just how I am.

— Laufey

Many readers judge of the power of a book by the shock it gives their feelings.

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

I couldn't go to college, so I went to the library three days a week for 10 years.

— Ray Bradbury

I believe that kids as well as adults are entitled to books of no socially redeeming value.

— R. L. Stine

I am exhausted by traditional memoir. I am exhausted by the architecture of the conventional novel.

— David Shields

I brought all the instincts of a writer with me into the monastery.

— Thomas Merton

“like a book with nothing on its pages but the promise of an amazing sequel.”

— Ben Monopoli

When you write, no matter what, it ends up personal.

— Sean Durkin

“A good book is a good book, I’ve always thought, whatever the genre.”

— Miranda James