Quotes About Achievement

When it comes to the awards and everything, and the press, the publicity, this is all icing on the cake to me.

When I was playing and playing real well I didn't get any publicity.

If I were to publicly give away my secrets, I'd be dumb. I am an intelligent woman who is focused on the prize.

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

I wanted to publish a book simply to be buried with it; that's all I wanted. I had no ambition beyond that.

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.

I couldn't believe it when Penguin offered me the chance to publish a book.

I always knew Andy Hageman would publish incredible eco stuff.

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.

Academia does not provide many opportunities for immediate gratification. You work for two years on a project, it takes two more years to get it published, and then you start hoping someone might read it.

Up until my first book was published, I had all this potential, people would say, and I screwed up. After it, I could say: 'No, I didn't screw up.'

I didn't get anything published until I was thirty-three, and yet I'd written five novels and six or seven plays. The plays, I should point out, were dreadful.

I was always ambitious - not to make money: to be published.

I have always been driven; I've always wanted to be published, and I wanted to make that happen, so I worked very hard. 'Perfectionist' would be a word to describe me.

I've been writing fiction since I was a kid. From the age of 15 to 25, I probably wrote more than 50 short stories, one of which was published in 'The Paris Review' in 1989.

It was more exciting to get that first book published, I think.

I published 'Rules of Civility' while I was still working. It became a best seller. I was working on this book, and then I decided to retire.

I couldn't have known 'Crank' was going to be published, let alone become a big hit. That book was very personal for me: I had to tell the story for myself.

My first published book, 'Story of a Girl', was the fourth book I wrote.

My first collection of poems was published by Bloodaxe Books, which was then a very new imprint.

After seven years of writing - and working many jobs to support my family - I finally got published.

What I feel bad about is not having published very much in the last few years.

I went to work in an office and learned, among other lessons, to do things I did not care for, and to do them well. Before I left this office, two of my books had already been published.