Bills Quote by Tom T. Hall

I had this grand plan for writing the history of the United States in six volumes. This was in the mid-1990s; I was fairly…

— H. W. Brands

I wanted college to be a real American adventure for me.

— Mark Kurlansky

In addition I wanted to write a Southern novel, because I'm a Southerner.

— E. O. Wilson

My first book, about Ruby Ridge, was made into a miniseries on CBS in 1996, and since then, I've dabbled in Hollywood, pitched a…

— Jess Walter

When I was a graduate student at the Iowa Writers' Workshop for fiction writing, I felt both coveted and hated. My white classmates never…

— Jenny Zhang

When I was at Brown, I wanted to write the great American novel, but I was too scared to take a creative course. I…

— Nathaniel Philbrick

My father was a frustrated writer. I think he wanted to write the great American novel.

— Anne Waldman

Writing 'Native Guard,' I didn't know I was working on a single book. I began writing that book because I was interested in the…

— Natasha Trethewey

I went to college at University of Tennessee.

— Paula Pell

When I was able to go to school in my early years, my third grade teacher, Ms. Harris, convinced me that one day I…

— John Henrik Clarke

Books were my pass to personal freedom. I learned to read at age three, and soon discovered there was a whole world to conquer…

— Oprah Winfrey

I always knew writing a novel was a great thing.

— James Salter