Autobiographical Quote by Edmund White

“All novels are impossible. We would not wish to read them if they were not. Can you imagine how dull a tale would be…

— Caitlin Williams

“The forcible writer stands bodily behind his words with his experiences. He does not make books out of books, but he has been there…

— Henry David Thoreau

A novelist can never be his own reader, except when he is ridding his manuscript of syntax errors, repetitions, or the occasional superfluous paragraph.

— Patrick Modiano

“Christopher Isherwood tried to trick a good topic into rising from his unconscious by irritating it, “deliberately writing nonsense until it intervenes, as it…

— Ralph Keyes

A writer never reads his work. For him, it is the unreadable, a secret, and he cannot remain face to face with it. A…

— Maurice Blanchot

“Well, this is a story about books.” “About books?” “About accursed books, about the man who wrote them, about a character who broke out…

— Carlos Ruiz Zafón

“All writers are vain, selfish, and lazy, and at the very bottom of their motives there lies a mystery. Writing a book is a…

— George Orwell

I suppose most writers are following Twain's advice to tackle what they know, and my own readings habits drew me to writers who seemed…

— Kevin Keck

It is remarkable that Lord Esher should be so much astray...We must conclude that an uncontrollable fondness for fiction forbade him to forsake it…

— Winston Churchill

Holding this book in your hand, sinking back in your soft armchair, you will say to yourself: perhaps it will amuse me. And after…

— Honore de Balzac

For all the books in his possession, he still failed to read the stories written plain as day in the faces of the people…

— Emma Donoghue

Great books are readable anyway. Dickens is readable. Jane Austen is readable. John Updike's readable. Hawthorne's readable. It's a meaningless term. You have to…

— Julian Barnes