...there were certain chapters when I stopped writing, saw the domestic situation I was in and thought, "I don't want to face… — Alasdair Gray Copy Share Image
Your obligation as writers is to distinguish yourself. … The ultimate result should be a book that you write that no one… — David Morrell Copy Share Image
My little book of stories, 'Souls in the Twiligh,' may have to stand in for all the other things I have wanted… — Roger Scruton Copy Share Image
There are books of the same chemical composition as dynamite. The only difference is that a piece of dynamite explodes once, whereas… — Yevgeny Zamyatin Copy Share Image
Books are faithful repositories, which may be awhile neglected or forgotten, but when they are opened again, will again impart their instruction. — Ben Jonson Copy Share Image
Usually I try to be there by six. Everything has been taken off the walls so that there's nothing to arrest my… — Toni Morrison Copy Share Image
“The library is the worst group of people ever assembled in history. They're mean, conniving, rude, and extremely well-read, which makes them… — Anonymous Copy Share Image
Eventually the writing takes time. What I want to do is get the story down and I want to know what happens… — Philip Roth Copy Share Image
“These works are handed down from teacher to pupil, from parent to child, almost without question, like DNA. They are memorized, recited,… — Ryūnosuke Akutagawa Copy Share Image
In a way, I started 'Goon Squad' not even realizing I was writing a book. I thought I was just writing a… — Jennifer Egan Copy Share Image
At a time when there's younger writers starting up and it's inevitable that you're becoming less fashionable, at a time when the… — William Boyd Copy Share Image
It didn't occur to me that my books would be widely read at all, and that enabled me to write anything I… — Louise Erdrich Copy Share Image
Literary gentlemen, editors, and critics think that they know how to write, because they have studied grammar and rhetoric; but they are… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
I can't read all the books I want to read, I can't watch all the phenomena that interest me in the world.… — James Hillman Copy Share Image
“...maybe writing doesn't require sacrifice. Maybe it's a gift to experience emotions through our brushes, ink, and paper. I wrote out sorrow,… — Lisa See Copy Share Image
I'm sure that writing isn't a craft, that is, something for which you learn the skills and go on turning out. It… — Robert Lowell Copy Share Image
“Fiction has been maligned for centuries as being "false," "untrue," yet good fiction provides more truth about the world, about life, and… — Clark Zlotchew Copy Share Image
I think of myself in the oral tradition-as a troubadour, a village tale-teller, the man in the shadows of the campfire. That's… — Louis L'Amour Copy Share Image
“Power in praise or mountain that move is a nice book bec not only reading it after you read when you put… — Merlin Carothers Copy Share Image
I think Judy Blume, Stephen King, and Dean Koontz are the three authors responsible for my being where I am today. I… — James Dashner Copy Share Image
The connection that I have with my readers makes me very happy, and gives meaning to the strange profession of writing — Isabel Allende Copy Share Image
Movies feel like work, and reading fiction feels like work, whereas reading nonfiction feels like pleasure. — Peter Morgan Copy Share Image
“Books are the windows through which the soul looks out. A home without books is like a room without windows.” — Henry Ward Beecher Copy Share Image
It’s not the fear of writing that blocks people, it’s fear of not writing well; something quite different. — Scott Berkun Copy Share Image
“The Alice books belong to a branch of literature that speaks deeply and clearly to the human psyche--stories of the journey.” — Stephanie Lovett Stoffel Copy Share Image
Genre is a useful thing when organizing texts in a bookshop but immaterial to the particular exchange between writer and reader. — Rumaan Alam Copy Share Image
Books on the openings abound; nor are works on the end game wanting; but those on the middle game can be counted… — Harry Golombek Copy Share Image
Some writers can produce marvelous plots without planning it out, but I can't. In particular I need to know the structure of… — Emma Donoghue Copy Share Image
In writing biography, fact and fiction shouldn't be mixed. And if they are, the fictional points should be printed in red ink,… — Catherine Drinker Bowen Copy Share Image
The challenge for a nonfiction writer is to achieve a poetic precision using the documents of truth but somehow to make people… — Simon Schama Copy Share Image
Writing can be a frightening, distressing business, and whatever kind of structure or buffer is available can help a lot. — Aimee Bender Copy Share Image
I wrote my first short story for a competition and won second prize. Another competition came up and I won first prize.… — Ian Rankin Copy Share Image
My father gave me free run of his library. When I think of my boyhood, I think in terms of the books… — Jorge Luis Borges Copy Share Image
A lot of times if I'm writing, if something is awesome, something in me wants to go like, it's awesome. Let's stop.… — Edi Patterson Copy Share Image
I never had a plan to be a fiction writer. It's something that happened to me. Sometimes I think maybe it was… — Deborah Harkness Copy Share Image
“If you have a story inside you but don't know where to start, look within and write from the heart, for the… — Shanda Trofe Write from the Heart Copy Share Image
I have a cheat-sheet for each one of my characters about their personality, the way they look, etc. So there is no… — R. L. Stine Copy Share Image
Just get all of your ideas down. To me, writing is therapy and a way to clear your mind and step into… — Nick Cannon Copy Share Image
I write to give myself strength. I write to be the characters that I am not. I write to explore all the… — Joss Whedon Copy Share Image
“A happy childhood can fortify one against the ravages of life, and part of that happiness is found in books, which become… — Suzy Davies Copy Share Image
