Quotes About Writing

I worked probably 25 years by myself, just writing and working, not trying to publish much, not giving readings.

I began writing seriously in my mid-20s and didn't publish my first book until I was 41.

I don't necessarily intend to publish posthumously, but I do like to write for myself.

I think the next thing I publish will be for children, but I don't really want to be held to that because I also know what my next book for adults will be, and I really like that, too, so it depends. I've always had more than one thing going.

I have stacks and stacks of journals. I'll change the names if I ever decide to publish them.

Well I guess the plan was to write poetry and publish books and make a living from writing poetry. That was a pretty ambitious plan I guess.

Send it to someone who can publish it. And if they won't publish it, send it to someone else who can publish it! And keep sending it! Of course, if no one will publish it, at that point you might want to think about doing something other than writing.

I don't publish the books to make money, not at all.

I am not scared of anyone. I will write and publish my books.

I left Beijing in the late 1980s to live in Hong Kong because, having been blacklisted by the government, I couldn't publish my works on the mainland.

It's taken me 15 years to feel I might be able to write and publish short stories, and for the assiduous checks of the industry to allow some through.

Better that you should take the chance of trying something that is close to your heart, you think is what you want to write, and if they do not publish it, put it in your drawer. But maybe another day will come and you will find a place to put that.

I started out as a novelist and wrote several novels before deciding to publish one, and I fully intend to go back to the form.

Many years, I would publish four books - an anthology, a book of criticism, a new book of poems, a book of essays.

My first short story sale was to a magazine that sat on the story forever... and never did publish it.

Writing was a way to get away from my life as a programmer, so I wanted to write about other things, but of course nobody wanted to publish another story about a family, unless it was extraordinary. When I began writing about my life as a programmer, however, people were interested.

When I finally began to publish, my father never read my work. He'd say, 'Oh, that's your mother's sort of thing.' But my mother found the books rather upsetting. I figure she read just enough to know that she didn't want to go there.

We sometimes allow writers to publish their work without editing on io9.

I often get asked how I write so much. As any writer knows, the answer is to write a lot more than you actually publish.

I didn't say I have to be a writer, but I did say that I needed to publish at least one book.

I think women need to hear more encouragement in any field, because I see it - I teach creative writing. And even though it's mostly women in the room, they're not often - or they didn't used to be the ones who went on to publish books. I know this sounds like a tautology, but encouragement is the key.

People either fall into two camps, where they're pro-fanfic, or they're anti-fanfic. I would not have had the skills to write and publish my first novel if I hadn't been writing fanfic.

I am not sure when it became de rigueur for presidential candidates to publish a work between hard covers, but nobody now runs for high office without having written, or having arranged for the ghostwriting of, a very large book.

I felt that I had to write. Even if I had never been published, I knew that I would go on writing, enjoying it and experiencing the challenge.