Books Quote by James M. Cain

“Writing a novel is the closest thing a male writer will ever get to the experience of childbirth.”

— Norman Mailer

“The novelist is more like a pregnant woman who delivers her own child unaided. A messy procedure, with lots of groaning.”

— David Mitchell

I never can understand how two men can write a book together; to me that's like three people getting together to have a baby.

— Evelyn Waugh

Writing a book is like torture that you don't know, but after it's done and there it is. It's a joy like unlike anything…

— Harry Crews

Writing is like carrying a fetus.

— Edna O'Brien

Writing books is the closest men ever come to childbearing.

— Norman Mailer

Much of writing might be described as mental pregnancy with successive difficult deliveries.

— J. B. Priestley

Whoever is able to write a book and does not, it is as if he has lost a child

— Anonymous

“Today, it's possible to read both erotica and books written for children without fear of social castigation.”

— Amelia Gray

It ought to be a crime for any woman to have children that writes books.

— Josephine Dodge Daskam Bacon

Sometimes writing a novel is not unlike having a baby. You'd have to ask a female novelist to compare the pain.

— Salman Rushdie

Two people getting together to write a book is like three people getting together to have a baby. One of them is superfluous.

— George Bernard Shaw