My mother was a huge, huge reader. I think I picked up very early how precious it was to write things in… — Judith Viorst Copy Share Image
There are, indeed, few kinds of composition from which an author, however learned or ingenious, can hope a long continuance of fame. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
As I have encountered difficult moments in my own life, I have been privileged to learn from the great men I have… — Candice Millard Copy Share Image
Novels are more difficult simply because they are longer and require more juggling, but short stories are closer to perfection, if you… — Colum McCann Copy Share Image
Writing is the hardest thing I know, but it was the only thing I wanted to do. I wrote for 20 years… — Kent Haruf Copy Share Image
“The whole point of straws, I had thought, was that you did not have to set down the slice of pizza to… — Nicholson Baker Copy Share Image
“We don’t need a list of rights and wrongs, tables of dos and don’ts: we need books, time, and silence. Thou shalt… — Philip Pullman Copy Share Image
I sometimes look at my bookshelves today and wonder which volumes my sons will treasure in twenty or thirty years. Which should… — Rick Riordan Copy Share Image
I'd always rather stand or fall on my own mistakes. There's nothing worse than looking back, in a published book, at a… — Donna Tartt Copy Share Image
I took "Forever" [by Judy Blume] to the bathroom to read [when I was eight] and then I heard my mom coming… — Lena Dunham Copy Share Image
“Because of the very nature of the world as it is today, our children receive in school a heavy load of scientific… — Madeleine L'Engle Copy Share Image
Writing is not a special language that belongs to a few sensitive souls who have a 'gift for words'. Writing is the… — William Zinsser Copy Share Image
“A silent Library is a sad Library. A Library without patrons on whom to pile books and tales and knowing and magazines… — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
You can't really succeed with a novel anyway; they're too big. It's like city planning. You can't plan a perfect city because… — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
When I was eight years old, I wrote a paragraph-long short story about a goat on my mother's hundred-pound, black-and-white-screen laptop. The… — Tea Obreht Copy Share Image
“What I've learned to do when I sit down to work on a shitty first draft is to quiet the voices in… — Anne Lamott Copy Share Image
“I am surprised to see how much I have written; with stories even a page can take me hours, but the truth… — Dodie Smith Copy Share Image
If you're reading something from a Nobel Prize-winning physicist next to some guy in his underwear writing in his basement, or his… — Barack Obama Copy Share Image
For the writer, there is nothing quite like having someone say that he or she understands, that you have reached them and… — Virginia Hamilton Copy Share Image
We collect books in the belief that we are preserving them when in fact it is the books that preserve their collector. — Walter Benjamin Copy Share Image
We are living in an era of such interesting new forms, and certainly narrative non-fiction has emerged as a major form. People… — Daniel Mendelsohn Copy Share Image
You have to have passion for a subject to write about it. You can't expect your readers to feel any excitement if… — Leonard Mlodinow Copy Share Image
Holding women to the idea of 'write what you know' subtly reinforces the status quo. Writing is a chance to celebrate who… — Lisa Joy Copy Share Image
The most important advice I can offer is that writing is a craft that you can learn by practicing. If you keep… — Lauren Tarshis Copy Share Image
Anything good that I have written has, at some point during its composition, left me feeling uneasy and afraid. It has seemed,… — Michael Chabon Copy Share Image
I learned that there is an inner strength that blossoms when one cleanses themselves by processing and attempting to comprehend their situation… — Dominique Jackson Copy Share Image
“No better stress reliever than to sit down and write! Let your imagination take you to other places and another time!” — Rosanne Bittner Copy Share Image
I'm a successful novelist, and I've been a lucky one, so I don't want to cry the poor mouth. Writing has never… — Richard Flanagan Copy Share Image
It takes me three or four years to research and write each book and the individual stories stay with you for a… — Antony Beevor Copy Share Image
The habit of reading is the only enjoyment in which there is no alloy; it lasts when all other pleasures fade. — Anthony Trollope Copy Share Image
A novel is a daily labor over a period of years. A novel is a job. But a story can be like… — Lorrie Moore Copy Share Image
When you reread a classic, you do not see more in the book than you did before; you see more in you… — Anonymous Copy Share Image
As I tell my intro creative writing students, after reading someone you love, wait at least an hour before starting to write. — Matthew Healy Copy Share Image
I like the varying rhythm of being a writer that you have a period of being in complete isolation where it's just… — Patrick Marber Copy Share Image
“Writing is thinking. To write well is to think clearly. That's why it's so hard." (Interview with NEH chairman Bruce Cole, Humanities… — David McCullough Copy Share Image
What someone calls my books is irrelevant to me. I consider them works of art and rules and categories and labels mean… — James Frey Copy Share Image
Many of the books I loved as a kid, that even my mother read as a child, are very slow going. Today's… — Lois Lowry Copy Share Image
I consider myself a writer. I don't favour any type of writing. I sometimes wish short stories came more easily to me. — James Lasdun Copy Share Image
A novel wouldn't be a book if there weren't some flights of fancy on the part of the author, stopping time to… — Ned Vizzini Copy Share Image
As Bridget writes to her son, in Bridget Jones' Baby - "if you just keep calm and keep your spirits up, things… — Helen Fielding Copy Share Image
![“I took "Forever" [by Judy Blume] to the bathroom to read [when I was eight] and then I heard my mom coming so I stuck it under the toilet and went running out. And I went back later to check for it. And it was gone.” quote by Lena Dunham](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/05e/lena-dunham-1013_bathroom_i-took-forever-by-judy-blume-to-the-bath_484950.jpg)
