After Quote by Tom Rachman

Why does any novelist keep writing long after they've made money? Because they've failed to write the perfect novel.

— Ian Rankin

I wrote the first draft of the New People quickly but it had been percolating a lot longer. It's a hard question to answer…

— Danzy Senna

It took me seven years of writing before I published my first story. And then, the publications trickled in over the next five years.

— Rob Roberge

It took seven years from the day I decided I wanted to write fiction to actually getting a book published.

— Cynthia Kadohata

The hope in literature is that we are allowed to be imperfect, to write of our imperfection, without being overly critiqued for being unlikeable.

— Kate Zambreno

I write slowly by hand. Publishing is effectively bankrupt for you unless you are Danielle Steele. It takes a year to write book and…

— Erica Jong

I started to write a new editor not too long ago and had it about half done after two days.

— Bill Joy

I think most of the things I published have been published out of desperation, not because they were perfected.

— M. H. Abrams

I had to produce a complete page - or two or three - in one day. I took a lot of pride in my…

— Joe Shuster

This is all you have to do. Sit down once a day to the novel and start working without internal criticism, without debilitating expectations,…

— Walter Mosley

I always assumed I could never make a living out of literary fiction, and I was right. When I did try, it took four…

— Justin Cartwright

A lot of first novels are written long before they're actually put down on paper.

— Roger Ebert