Writer Quotes · Page 547

I am neither an Occidental writer nor a Russian writer. I am an accidental writer.

— Joseph Brodsky

You know what they say: When people start burning books they'll soon burn human beings.

— Cornelia Funke

Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them all

— Henry David Thoreau

There's a truth that comes through when an author performs his own work that is unique and special.

— Michael Feinstein

Every writer has to find their own way into writing.

— Margaret Mahy

Any book has behind it all the other books that have been written.

— Anthony Burgess

I kind of live like a writer. I get up and I write. I've done that my whole life.

— Noah Baumbach

A novel must show how the world truly is. Somehow, reveals the true source of our actions.

— Jane Austen

“I said something about reading not being knowledge, about knowledge without experience being food without sustenance.”

— David Mitchell

I realized that I might not ever make it as a writer, that it might be because I wasn't good enough, or…

— Jay McInerney

I grew up in Des Moines. My dad had a house full of books, things like P.G. Wodehouse books and 'Wuthering Heights'…

— Bill Bryson

Overall, the library held a hushed exultation, as though the cherished volumes were all singing soundlessly within their covers.

— Diana Gabaldon

Literary novelists who have a strong handle on plot are often characterized as good vacation reads because they manage to transport you…

— Michelle Dean

I don't have a publisher yet, so I'm not in the process of that next stage and I don't know what that's…

— Parker Posey

If you imagine the world listening, you'll never write a line. That's why privacy is so important. You should write first drafts…

— Erica Jong

As for literature It gives no man a sinecure. And no one knows, at sight, a masterpiece. And give up verse, my…

— Ezra Pound

I cannot just write a frivolous book, a la-di-da book. Everything isn't la-di-da. There is something that's going to pull you up…

— Sharon Creech

The hardest part about writing fiction is finding long stretches of time to do it: for me, this means writing mostly on…

— J. Courtney Sullivan

When I was younger, I suppose I was interested in checking out as much about writing as I could: bad, weird, irritating,…

— Susan Minot

“She picked up her book and tried to read but it was heavy in her hands. She struggled to hold it, wanting…

— Louise Penny

A bran' new book is a beautiful thing, all promise and fresh pages, the neatly squared spine, the brisk sense of a…

— Lewis Buzbee

The library was home away from home to my mom, and my family. We had spent every Sunday afternoon there since I…

— Kami Garcia

All writers learn this, in time: don't show your work to other people until it's safely finished. Even discussing your unborn book…

— Lynne Truss

To be a writer you have to be out in the world, you have to risk yourself in the world, you have…

— V. S. Naipaul

“Reading is a way to quench your thirst for knowledge.”

— Anonymous

As an author and a burgeoning screenwriter, the fact of the matter is I cannot do this alone.

— Taylor Jenkins Reid

Every leaf of the tree becomes a page of the book, once the heart is opened and it has learnt to read.

— Anonymous

In reality, every reader is, while reading, the reader of his own self.

— Marcel Proust

I write books to influence people I will never meet. Books increase my audience and my message.

— Les Parrott

“As for writing, that's a cruel hard business. Unless you're very lucky it'll break your heart.”

— Edward Abbey

I thought, frankly, that it would be more pleasant to write a memoir than it was.

— Jim Harrison

Write the best story that you can and write it as straight as you can.

— Ernest Hemingway

I was an omnivore at reading, so that everything I ever read contributed.

— Jack Vance

You're a writer. And that's something better than being a millionaire. Because it's something holy.

— Harlan Ellison

I love reading I know its very important and I respect anyone that is patient enough to do it.

— Stanley Victor Paskavich

A writer takes earnest measures to secure his solitude and then finds endless ways to squander it.

— Don DeLillo

“I am not so fortunate as to have Virgil as my guide, but I do have Dante as my inspiration.”

— Michael H. Stone

I really like listening to books. I listen to them at twice the speed so I can listen to more books.

— Poppy

Being a famous writer is a little like being a tall dwarf. You're on the edge of normality.

— John Updike

What kind of life can you have in a house without books?

— Sherman Alexie