Writer Quotes · Page 575

If you haven't written a novel by the time you're forty you never will!

— Richard Yates

“The contents of someone's bookcase are part of his history, like and ancestral portrait.”

— Anatole Broyard

“To me, fiction is a fast-track to the sort of truth with which facts interfere.”

— Sarah Terez Rosenblum

It's just like sex; when [a book is] finished, it's finished.

— Haruki Murakami

I have a ritual of reading before bed, no matter how tired I am.

— Cathy Newman

Even in so-called realist or conventional writing there can be defamiliarization.

— Leni Zumas

Those who say truth is stranger than fiction have wasted their time on poorly written fiction.

— Mark Twain

“I like libraries. It’s a comfort that knowledge can be saved for so long.”

— Scarlet Jackson Pearce

“Read the right books and we can be as wild and worry-free as we've ever wanted to be. No law can stop…

— Carla H. Krueger

“I write because I love it, not because I excel at it.  But because I write, I shall slowly excel at it.”

— Richelle E. Goodrich

“Each of us will make his own shelf of books. The book for me is the book that delights, attracts, soothes, or…

— Maurice Francis Egan

At risk of sounding foully pompous I think that writers' groups are probably very useful at the beginning of a writing career.

— Bernard Cornwell

It makes more sense to write one big book - a novel or nonfiction narrative - than to write many stories or…

— Annie Dillard

I never plot out my novels in terms of the tone of the book. Hopefully, once a story is begun it reveals…

— Alice Hoffman

What people tell me they take away from my books is that they can shape their lives, they can achieve their own…

— Tamora Pierce

Although I enjoy digging through the library to help students find books, my aim is to help them develop self-confidence in choosing…

— Donalyn Miller

For me writing is a long, hard, painful process, but it is addictive, a pleasure that I seek out actively. My advice…

— Laurence Yep

A library is a place that is a repository of information and gives every citizen equal access to it. That includes health…

— Neil Gaiman

Writing isn't about performing. Writing is like looking for treasure, so it's sort of like you're out in the field. I wouldn't…

— Jack Savoretti

When you're embarking on a piece of writing, the anxiety is just too much, especially when you're young and you're trying to…

— George Saunders

“Books make their greatest mark when they reach readers in their growing years. The young look everywhere for that ground of truth…

— Milton Meltzer

I write my novels longhand. I love the feeling of writing; I love to see pen on paper. It feels more creative…

— Cecelia Ahern

Parents, it seems, have an almost Olympian persistence when it comes to suggesting more secure and lucrative lines of work for their…

— Susan Orlean

“It is commonly said to my little friend Legion: Read the great writers for style. But I say to him: Read the…

— Eugene Manlove Rhodes

“How could I write about life when I'd never had a love affair or a baby or seen anybody die?”

— Sylvia Plath

“Synergy between thoughts and feelings reads the universe like an opened book.”

— Toba Beta

I don't write things that are wildly abstractly atonal.

— Andre Previn

There are noble books but one wants the breath of life sometimes.

— Margaret Fuller

First and foremost, it's got to be on the page. It starts with the writing.

— Miguel Ferrer

If writing is your practice, the only way to fail is not to write.

— Gail Sher

“The reader leaves his mark on the book, as the book leaves its mark on the reader.”

— Gabrielle Dubois

“I drink to make people more interesting," Ernest Hemingway.”

— Ernest Hemingway

“Every book has to wait for the right time to be read and understood.”

— Kamand Kojouri

The way we've been neglecting to support our libraries throughout the country is a shame.

— Matthew Lesko

“Upon the one thing every writer absolutely must have, and that is intellectual curiosity.”

— Phillip Athans

A writer's job is to give the reader a larger vision of the world.

— Natalie Goldberg

I really think I write about everyday life. I don't think I'm quite as odd as others say I am.

— Edward Gorey

I fell in love with books at the Elizabeth Public Library when I was four...

— Judy Blume

Two sorts of writers possess genius: those who think, and those who cause others to think.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Reading is a private pursuit; one that takes place behind closed doors.

— Siri Hustvedt