I'd never written a book or a story that required meeting people, and that's not necessarily my best skill, even in English.… — Tania James Copy Share Image
The writer has to force himself to work. He has to make his own hours and if he doesn't go to his… — Roald Dahl Copy Share Image
While confronting the problems of the present, I often find myself thinking back to the world of books as it was experienced… — Robert Darnton Copy Share Image
The library is every child's lighthouse. It is every person's sanctuary. It is every town and county's fortress in the face of… — Amy Bloom Copy Share Image
I think that when memoir goes wrong, it goes wrong from too much memory, too much detail. It's about clearing all that… — Tara Westover Copy Share Image
A bookshop is powder-magazine, a dynamite-shed, a drugstore of poisons, a bar of intoxicants, a den of opiates, an island of sirens. — John Cowper Powys Copy Share Image
I do really enjoy Jay McInerney's wine writing. He's a good writer. He brings his fiction-writing skillset. He's not afraid to put… — Mike D Copy Share Image
“Two of life’s greatest pleasures, by my reckoning, are camping and reading—most gloriously, both at once.” — Michael Finkel Copy Share Image
“Reading lives is the primary activity. Reading literature, although we engage in it more intentionally and more mindfully, is the secondary one.… — William L. Randall Copy Share Image
Like flies in amber, like corpses frozen in in ice, that which according to the laws of nature should pass away is… — Diane Setterfield Copy Share Image
“I had long ago learned that books are the best presents you can buy for a person--except me. I like toys. But… — Gary Reilly Copy Share Image
I believe that today more than ever a book should be sought after even if it has only one great page in… — Henry Miller Copy Share Image
What helps writers, and ultimately, obviously, helps the actors - who should serve the words that the writer puts on the page… — John C. McGinley Copy Share Image
“Indeed, and crucially so, the serial form took the control of the novel away from the reader and left him in an… — Ian Gregor Copy Share Image
I am a hopeless pantser, so I don't do much outlining. A thought will occur to me, and I'll just throw it… — Marie Lu Copy Share Image
“I have no idea whether beginning with my accident was the best decision, as I've never written a book before. Truth be… — Andrew Davidson Copy Share Image
“Write down important formulas, facts, definitions, and/or keywords in the margin first so you won't worry about” — Jawanza Kunjufu Copy Share Image
While medicine creates material for writing, perhaps even more important is that it also creates a psychological and emotional need to write. — Daniel Mason Copy Share Image
A literary agent is nothing but a cheap salesman (or woman); while a writer is a cheap salesman (or woman) who also… — John Hodgman Copy Share Image
“Read, read, read. Read everything -- trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who… — William Faulkner Copy Share Image
Immorality, perversion, infidelity, cannibalism, etc., are unassailable by church and civic league if you dress them up in the togas and talliths… — Ben Hecht Copy Share Image
When I write after dark", observed Cyril Connolly, "the shades of evening scatter their purple through my prose — Anne Fadiman Copy Share Image
A novel is not moral in the usual sense of the word. It can be called moral when it shakes us out… — Azar Nafisi Copy Share Image
“To find just the right book at the moment when the soul is hungry for it is a miracle, and not a… — Jane Steger Copy Share Image
“Do not start me on The Da Vinci Code ... a novel so bad that it gives bad novels a bad name."… — Salman Rushdie Copy Share Image
Novel-writing is the only place where someone who would have liked to do anything can still do that vicariously, — Anonymous Copy Share Image
The story has to flow from an unstructured, felt place, but then I have to bring my analytical brain to bear on… — Marisa Silver Copy Share Image
Books seek us out. They slip themselves into our hands just at the time we are ready for a new self-concept. — Hugh Prather Copy Share Image
Since the age of four, I've been exploring what I can do with the written word: everything from championing literacy and youth… — Adora Svitak Copy Share Image
Seventy percent of a first draft is garbage and 30 percent is gold, but you have to write 100 percent to get that 30. — Laurell K. Hamilton Copy Share Image
I'm trying to be somebody on whom the experience is lost by supplanting it with its telling. I definitely do that in… — Ben Lerner Copy Share Image
“Write, even if you have a twinge, a doubt, a fear, a block, a noisy neighbor, a sick cat, thirteen unpublished stories,… — Eric Maisel Copy Share Image
To make a book is as much a trade as to make a clock; something more than intelligence is required to become… — Jean de la Bruyere Copy Share Image
Often something comes in from which you can see that the person is good, the book may not be perfect as it… — James Laughlin Copy Share Image
Writing is a process of discovering. I could never outline a narrative; that just sounds boring. There's no joy of discovery in… — Bob Shacochis Copy Share Image
Writing a book is like running a marathon. You need to be fit to do it, mentally and, as far as possible,… — Catherine Mayer Copy Share Image
Mostly it's lies, writing novels. You set out to tell an untrue story and you try to make it believable, even to… — Anne Tyler Copy Share Image
“A good book is a good friend. He will talk to you if you want him to talk, but will shut up… — Lyman Abbott Copy Share Image
It's only adults who read the top layers most of the time. I think children read the internal meanings of everything. — Maurice Sendak Copy Share Image
I do a lot of revising on paper. Sometimes I think I should just write longhand - what I type reads very… — Sara Shepard Copy Share Image
