“You want to know a secret?” I asked. “Sure,” she said halfheartedly. “I love to sniff the insides of books,” I said… — Jack Gantos Copy Share Image
Being rewarded for anything other than the quality of their work is the fastest way to screw-up a writer-and it isn't only… — Greg Egan Copy Share Image
Pacing is not the sort of thing you can plan out beforehand, but you're always aware of it as you write, because… — Jean Hanff Korelitz Copy Share Image
I feel like part of getting better at writing is knowing where to find that inspiration. Right after something happens to me,… — Troye Sivan Copy Share Image
Most good fiction also has a character the writer seems to know more deeply than anyone can actually be known in life,… — Nell Freudenberger Copy Share Image
As a writer, I know that - you write a first draft and then put it in a drawer. The longer I… — Malcolm Gladwell Copy Share Image
If you want to do this - either write for TV, or write books - the first thing you have to do… — Josh Lieb Copy Share Image
Writing a novel is like childbirth: once you realize how awful it really is, you never want to do it again. — Sarah Dessen Copy Share Image
Reminiscences, even extensive ones, do not always amount to an autobiography. For autobiography has to do with time, with sequence and what… — Walter Benjamin Copy Share Image
In general, a writer would like to think that the best book that he has written is the book that he is… — Mario Vargas Llosa Copy Share Image
There are a couple of strategies for writing about an absence or writing about a loss. One can create the person that… — Junot Diaz Copy Share Image
“All that's needed now is a great novel that will capture the imagination of the public - move them, enrage them, thrill… — Michael Farber Copy Share Image
“The novel, then, provides a reduction of the world different from that of the treatise. It has to lie. Words, thoughts, patterns… — Frank Kermode Copy Share Image
“And yes, I confess, when I looked at him, I thought of Heathcliff and Mr Rochester and Maxim de Winter... and how… — Justine Picardie Copy Share Image
“Novels, says Sartre, are not life, but they owe our power upon us, as upon himself as an infant, to the fact… — Frank Kermode Copy Share Image
If a writer understands his work as something that originates with him but then, with any luck, gets away from him, then… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
So, I was always frustrated having to write and having to cut things. Why should you have to cut anything? — Ted Nelson Copy Share Image
When my mother talked about her brother, there was this light in her eyes. I thought, 'This is the basis of a… — Per Petterson Copy Share Image
For writing a first draft requires from the writer a peculiar internal state which ordinary life does not induce. ... how to… — Annie Dillard Copy Share Image
“Writing is very hard mostly because until you try to write something down, it’s easy to fool yourself into believing you understand… — Mark Vonnegut Copy Share Image
“There is a brilliant novel in all of us. Some imagine it…others live it. Authors dwell in an auspicious life by having… — Carl Henegan Copy Share Image
However, please allow me to say that the fundamental style of my writing has been to start from my personal matters and… — Kenzaburo Oe Copy Share Image
I always want readers to lose themselves completely in a story and feel something, whatever the book invites them to feel. That… — Julie Berry Copy Share Image
I started off like everyone else does, slogging but having a compulsion to put words on paper. I didn't write or read… — Laurell K. Hamilton Copy Share Image
Great books give you a feeling that you miss all day, until you finally get to crawl back inside those pages again. — Kathryn Stockett Copy Share Image
“By living a life “against nature,” the deviant or pervert becomes a hero or heroine in decadent fiction.” — Asti Hustvedt Copy Share Image
Great literature should do some good to the reader: must quicken his perception though dull, and sharpen his discrimination though blunt, and… — A. E. Housman Copy Share Image
To study the phenomena of disease without books is to sail an uncharted sea, while to study books without patients is not… — William Osler Copy Share Image
When I am writing alone I try to just write for myself without thinking, like, this will go on a record. — Julien Baker Copy Share Image
My books don't sell anymore. There are many reasons why they don't sell, but one of the reasons is because people don't… — Norman Finkelstein Copy Share Image
I really recommend that anyone who wants to write have a very physical hobby that takes you away from books and criticism,… — Jo-Ann Mapson Copy Share Image
We are all writers and readers as well as communicators with the need at times to please and satisfy ourselves with the… — Roger Angell Copy Share Image
But I've been at writing long enough now to know that every three or four books I have to start a new… — Daniel Woodrell Copy Share Image
It took me five or six years to write 'How Should a Person Be?' and there were many times when I felt… — Sheila Heti Copy Share Image
Reading should not be presented to children as a chore or duty. It should be offered to them as a precious gift. — Kate DiCamillo Copy Share Image
“I'm purely a popular writer, with no axe to grind apart from writing a good read' for entertainment and relaxation.” — Mary Howard Copy Share Image
It's always been about shelf life. Long-term parking, not short-term. That's why I take the time that I do when I write. — Gza Copy Share Image
I'm not the fastest reader or writer but occasionally I'll write things down just so I don't forget them. — Thighpaulsandra Copy Share Image
“Jessica DuLong’s elegantly written "My River Chronicles" brings the past of the Hudson River into the vivid present, and carries forward the… — Gay Talese Copy Share Image
There are two kinds of characters in all fiction, the born and the synthetic. If the writer has to ask himself questions… — Rex Stout Copy Share Image
