Writer Quotes · Page 602

Ideally a book would have no order in it, and the reader would have to discover his own.

— Raoul Vaneigem

Strange as it may seem, the most ludicrous lines I ever wrote have been written in the saddest mood.

— William Cowper

A lot of people have told me, you know, that what I've written about, they identify with strongly.

— Carrie Fisher

“retelling ought to prove formative, nurturing, stabilizing, delightful.26”

— D.A. Carson

But I don't read or listen for pleasure. I have too much else to do.

— Piers Anthony

People tend to think of their lives as having a dramatic arc, because they read too much fiction.

— Will Self

That's what happens with writing. Ingredients bubble and cook. Material becomes substance.

— Alex Haley

Agents and publishers only want one thing - good writing.

— Jasper Fforde

It's interesting when you write something for somebody else, and then you're like, 'Oh man, I just laid my whole trip on…

— LP

“They say the content and the cover are the most important things when it comes to a book or a novel, right?…

— Jimmy Tudeski

I can write faster on a typewriter than you can on a computer. I do 120 words a minute, and you can't…

— Ray Bradbury

What we read and why we do so defines us in a profound way. You are what you read, I suppose. Browsing…

— Guillermo del Toro

The biggest difference between a writer and a would-be writer is their attitude toward rewriting. . . . Unwillingness to revise usually signals an amateur.

— Sol Stein

You don't have to be the most amazing writer, you don't have to get top marks in your English GCSE, you just…

— Steph McGovern

What obsesses a writer starting out on a lifetime's work is the panic-stricken search for a voice of his own.

— John Mortimer

“I'm always amazed that people will stand around books for hours and only look at the spine. I think I should write…

— Richie Norton

Combine a left-leaning upbringing with a family with direct experience of the Holocaust and someone with aspirations to write and I guess,…

— Elliot Perlman

“Quite amazing how determined kings and emperors have been to destroy books. But civilization is built on such desecrations, is it not?…

— Ross King

Letterwriting is the natural outlet of the "odds." The busy-bodies, the idle, the perverted, the cranks, the feel-it-my-duties ... Also the plain…

— Josephine Tey

“Perhaps there is another kind of writing, I only know this one, in the night, when anxiety does not let me sleep,…

— Franz Kafka

“Despite his first, the study of English literature seemed in retrospect an absorbing parlor game, and reading books and having opinions about…

— Ian McEwan

Of all man’s instruments, the most wondrous, no doubt, is the book. The other instruments are extensions of his body. The microscope,…

— Jorge Luis Borges

A common question asked of writers is "When did you decide to become a writer?" The answer, of course, is that we…

— Mary Higgins Clark

I had a year of panic attacks. I was feeling really pressured, like I could never do it again. With a first…

— Naomi Alderman

'Pastoralia' by George Saunders is one of my favorite novels.

— Zooey Deschanel

“My Title as Author Will Always Stand Tall If Nobody Buys My Books, I Will Not Fall”

— Charmaine J. Forde

I'm a storyteller, and I was an actor, so I have a fairly thin grip on reality to begin with.

— Taylor Sheridan

“Without imagination, writing is a stack of lumber, a sack of nails, and a locked tool shed.”

— Michael J. Kannengieser

“Maybe his big build isn't a linebacker's after all; maybe it's a librarian's.”

— Robin Sloan

It is a great thing to start life with a small number of really good books which are your very own.

— Arthur Conan Doyle

“Always write for yourself, writing for others will never work out and will only wear you down faster.”

— Hell Richards

I get caught up in my bubble of reading, writing, or music.

— Antonio Banderas

I have always been a reader. I was one of those kids desperate to learn. I would read anything.

— Kate DiCamillo

You must write for yourself, above all. That is your only hope of creating something beautiful.

— Gustave Flaubert

Write about what you don't know about what you know.

— Eudora Welty

Writing is making a mess, and then working and reworking to create a beautiful piece.

— Heather Sellers

When you have an author and an auteur, it's a difficult and challenging relationship.

— Sam Taylor-Johnson

A book which, above all others in the world, should be forbidden, is a catalogue of forbidden books.

— Georg C. Lichtenberg

Writing is conscience, scruple, and the farming of our ancestors.

— Edward Dahlberg

Writing gives me the license to go, explore, and learn about the world.

— Amitava Kumar