Quotes About Literature

I read my books aloud before they were published.

I've written a lot of prose. I just haven't published it.

Every book has mistakes in them, every one. There's never been a book published without mistakes.

Not being published would be great. When I say that to other writers they look at me as if I'm totally insane.

When I began to be published, people got the idea that I should 'teach writing,' which I have no idea how to do and don't really believe in.

We've been hearing about the death of the novel ever since the day after Don Quixote was published.

My first book was published without any editorial advice. Nobody said, 'You might do this or that,' or 'Why don't we see more of this.' I merely took the book and published it.

I think the class divide is going to change. I think a lot more working class people are going to get published. It is really class ridden, literature.

A whole bunch of agents and editors looked at my stories, and they all said, in effect, 'You're a pretty good writer and you should probably get these published; when you grow up and write a novel, get in touch.'

Of all the love stories ever published, I have - realistically - read very few.

Before I was published, I thought men read car manuals or books about football. But once I started having really serious conversations with male lovers of literature, I let go of that prejudice.

I would never write a sentence that didn't have a nice rhythm, or at least I wouldn't leave it to be published like that. It seems to me that prose mustn't be prosaic.

I've had over a dozen and a half novels published since late 1994 when my first novel, 'Brother to Dragons, Companion to Owls' came out.

A lot of great authors are published before their time. That's not wrong; it's just the way it works.

I grew up reading Updike. I remember being alarmed to find that he had published short stories by the time he was 22. I think 'Pigeon Feathers' was the first collection of stories I read. Only much later did I discover his non-fiction reviewing and art criticism.

John Updike's first published book was a collection of poems.

Very wonderful books might be published, and very terrible books might be published.

I used my NEA fellowship to write my novel, 'In Country,' which was published by Harper & Row in 1985.

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

Any writer kind of who knows what they're doing goes forth and grabs a copy of an issue of something that they want to be published in, or they skim it online. They read what that market has been doing. They see a particular flavor of fiction.

Several elementary school teachers had described me as a 'future authoress or poetess.' Mother took me to meet Chicago's leading black librarian, who published a poem of mine in the magazine she edited for Negro children.

I always grew up with the idea that in order to be a successful writer, I should have a book published.

In 1997, Alain de Botton published his book 'How Proust Can Change Your Life.' I was charmed by it. I remember using it in a course on cultural criticism for a graduate class that had a mix of theorists and creative writers.

When I read Doctor Sleep, when it was first published, I was so taken with getting to spend time with Danny Torrance again.