Beginning Quote by Ian Rankin

I have a lot of stuff that I never published because I always had a sense that novels were not finally going to be…

— William Monahan

My novel got published, and I became a paid writer, which was nice, and then it came out, and nobody bought it, so I…

— Tom King

I had, like any other young novelist, started out by believing the difficult thing was to get published and that, once you managed that,…

— Mordecai Richler

Many years ago I had two small children, and I wanted to be able to be home when they got home from school. And…

— Mary Kay Andrews

Somewhere along the line, I realized that I liked telling stories, and I decided that I would try writing. Ten years later, I finally…

— Janet Evanovich

When I was starting out, I did not do short fiction well, because I kept wanting to write books.

— Elizabeth Moon

My first novel was rejected by some of the most eminent publishers in the world. Starting again was a real wrench.

— Wilbur Smith

I had the offer to write books plenty of times during the early stage of my career, and I always kind of just pushed…

— Tim Howard

I began writing seriously in my mid-20s and didnt publish my first book until I was 41.

— Kent Haruf

I didn't make any money from my writing until much later. I published about 80 stories for nothing. I spent on literature.

— Naguib Mahfouz

Wrote my first "novel" when I was six. Studied a bit in college, but then pursued history... But when I started writing professionally, it…

— David B. Coe

I came into book publishing without any particular impulse to be in book publishing.

— Michael Korda