Real people Quote by Edward Abbey

“If the world could write itself, it would write like Tolstoy.”

— Isaac Babel

“...Tolstoy's characters seem to come forward to meet you, very conscious of the impression they are making on one another and on the reader.”

— Stephen Spender

“Are we genuinely prepared to say that working in an office building or shopping in a mall is real, while reading Tolstoy is not?”

— Sarah Arthur

“Authors, full of evil thoughts, lock up your typewriters.”

— Ray Bradbury

“As writing is one of the desperate professions, it has universal appeal, especially for those not engaged in it.”

— WH Auden

This is not Tolstoy. I don't want to know what critics and professors think of what I'm writing. It might hurt my feelings.

— Lisa Kleypas

Tolstoy was the most gifted writer who ever lived. It's like he stuck a pen in his heart and it didn't even go through…

— Mel Brooks

“The truth, however, was that there was very little greatness. It was almost nonexistent, invisible. But you could be sure that the worst writers…

— Charles Bukowski

Everyone writes in Tolstoy's shadow, whether one feels oneself to be Tolstoyan or not.

— A. N. Wilson

“Sometimes it's impossible to say certain things ... Writing is something needed by man to share experience.”

— Arnost Lustig

“I know very well you can't help me," he said. "But I tell you, because unsuccessful and superfluous people like me find their salvation…

— Anton Chekhov

“One has to be just a little crazy to write a great novel. One must be capable of allowing the darkest, most ancient and…

— john gardner