“Get your story written, you always have the second and third draft to fix things like tense, 1st vs 3rd person, the… — Andromeda Edison Copy Share Image
“People talk about books that write themselves, and it's a lie. Books don't write themselves. It takes thought and research and a… — Neil Gaiman Copy Share Image
I do 30 to 40 books a year, so it's a fair amount of reading. Back and forth between nonfiction and fiction.… — James Patterson Copy Share Image
There are two kinds of writers. There are architects and gardeners. The architects do blueprints before they drive the first nail. The… — George R. R. Martin Copy Share Image
“If you write in the Old World, and against it, your work must die, go missing, be veiled, before it can live… — Patrick Nowell-Smith Copy Share Image
“But she did have to do something creative, even if it was just some little thing, because she was not writing, and… — Jincy Willett Copy Share Image
I thought research would be more glamorous, somehow. I'd give the librarian a secret code word and he'd give me the one… — Libba Bray Copy Share Image
We cannot be all the writers all the time. We can only be who we are. Which leads me to my second… — Zadie Smith Copy Share Image
A distinction must be made between that writing which enables us to hold on to life even as we are clinging to… — Bell Hooks Copy Share Image
“Books,” I say firmly. “I’m crazy about books.” He laughs. “Okay. That’s cool.” “I like to read them and write them,” I… — Willow Aster Copy Share Image
The kind of true-life writing that is fun to read - that makes an ally of the reader - is the kind… — Julie Klausner Copy Share Image
So, you know, I think any life has in it enough material, enough points of departure, to fuel a writer's career and… — John Updike Copy Share Image
I've never really worked out this thought, and I don't know if I'm really conscious of it, but I can see there's… — Tom Stoppard Copy Share Image
I am not a psychological novelist, and I try very hard not to allow the reader to see the plight or circumstances… — Alix Kates Shulman Copy Share Image
Every now and then, someone will tell me that one of my books has made them laugh out loud. I never believe… — Mary Roach Copy Share Image
What I would really love to happen to me would be if I came upon an idea that would keep me busy… — Philip Roth Copy Share Image
Any novel of importance has a purpose. If only the "purpose" be large enough, and not at outs with the passional inspiration. — D. H. Lawrence Copy Share Image
Writing is really a way of thinking--not just feeling but thinking about things that are disparate, unresolved, mysterious, problematic or just sweet. — Toni Morrison Copy Share Image
Almost all novels are improved by cutting from the top. On their first pages, authors parade those favourite effects which disgust the… — James Buchan Copy Share Image
“Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self." [ The New… — Cyril Connolly Copy Share Image
When things are going well, I can't write fast enough to keep up with my mind. Writing walks, speech runs and talk… — Dylan Moran Copy Share Image
A writer must know how people read, what are the main sources of reading errors, and what can be done to possibly… — Rudolf Flesch Copy Share Image
I've been approached a few times to write a book, but it's always a concept or a plan that I've not actually… — Gemma Atkinson Copy Share Image
I would like to one day write a nice big novel and enjoy writing it and people enjoy reading it but I… — Limmy Copy Share Image
I would write my editorials using a manual typewriter in pitch-black darkness... I would produce the whole thing without having seen the… — Charles Krauthammer Copy Share Image
I try to write about things, places, events, and phenomena I know about personally. That helps make the novels more genuine. — Lincoln Child Copy Share Image
She thought of the library, so shining white and new; the rows and rows of unread books; the bliss of unhurried sojourns… — Maud Hart Lovelace Copy Share Image
The art of writing is to explain the complications of the human soul with the simplicity that can be universally understood. — Anonymous Copy Share Image
“Is a twist less satisfying if you know it’s coming? Is a twist that you can’t predict symptomatic of bad construction? These… — Gabrielle Zevin Copy Share Image
Writing is something that you can never do as well as it can be done. It is a perpetual challenge and it… — Ernest Hemingway Copy Share Image
“A really well-done first draft of a book bares your soul. The purpose of revision is so that everyone who reads the… — James A. Owen Copy Share Image
A big reason I'd spent my career as a writer and not a public speaker is that I am a person who… — Laura Moser Copy Share Image
You become a different writer when you approach a short story. When things are not always having to represent other things, you… — Zadie Smith Copy Share Image
The importance to the writer of first writing must be out of all proportion of the actual value of what is written. — Elizabeth Bowen Copy Share Image
I'm a plotter. A thinker, a note-maker, a mapper and a flow-charter. I'm up for using any device that will teach me… — Nick Earls Copy Share Image
“At some point you’re going to have to formulate your copy, and if you do it early, it will keep you from… — James Scott Bell Copy Share Image
To read a novel is a difficult and complex art. You must be capable not only of great fineness of perception, but… — Virginia Woolf Copy Share Image
What I fear is not being forgotten after my death, but, rather, not being enough forgotten. As we were saying, it is… — Francois Mauriac Copy Share Image
“The novel is too capacious, inclusive, unruly, and personal for perfection. Too long, sometimes too much like life.” — Ian McEwan Copy Share Image
I think it's time to admit that our writing is guided by the technology we use as much as it is by… — Kenneth Goldsmith Copy Share Image
![“Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self." [ The New Statesman , February 25, 1933]” quote by Cyril Connolly](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/41f/cyril-connolly-1829_faithfulness_better-to-write-for-yourself-and-have-no_1949693.png)
