Books Quote by Vera Brittain

I write what I can. I think being able to write like Michael Connelly and have a character that goes from novel to novel,…

— Henry Rollins

Would-be novelists need to bring equal parts arrogance and ignorance to the task before them. The arrogance is almost self-explanatory. Walk into any bookstore…

— Laura Lippman

The biggest difference between a writer and a would-be writer is their attitude toward rewriting. . . . Unwillingness to revise usually signals an amateur.

— Sol Stein

For me, a writer is already being the deuce of his mission, his occupation to society.

— Wole Soyinka

“What was the point of having a situation worthy of fiction if the protagonist didn't behave as he would have done in a book?”

— Julian Barnes

A writer always wears glasses and never combs his hair. Half the time he feels angry about everything and the other half depressed. He…

— Paulo Coelho

There is a minority of gifted, willfuf people who are determined to live their own lives to the end, and writers belong in this…

— George Orwell

“The writer’s special talent is to empathize with people and imagine their lives. We know them as we write them.”

— Kay Kenyon

Great writers zealously learn the craft of their profession so they can release the power and the depth of their imagination and experience.

— Leonard Bishop

“The inexperienced reader wants the essentially familiar combined with superficial novelty. Each story must have a slightly new setting or twist or "gimmick," though…

— Laurence Perrine

I think the ultimate thing in some ways for any writer is to work on a character who's going to have a life for…

— Peter Gould

Any writer will be happy and good only if they know what they're doing and why they're doing it.

— Yann Martel