Quotes About Authorship

An unfinished book. left unattended, turns feral, and she would need all her focus, will and ruthless determination to tame it again.

One habit I have not yet succeeded in getting rid of: the inveterate one of feeling that when at home I must sit at my desk for so long each day to write, not letters whether of business or of friendship, but printable stuff, even when there is no idea of publishing connected with it. If I have failed to do it, I feel morally hang-doggy and physically unclean.

Wer Kritik als Beruf ausübt, weiß genau, was für ihn unentwegt auf dem Spiel steht – sein Renommee und damit die Basis seiner Existenz als Schriftsteller. Er kann es sich deshalb nicht leisten, leichtfertig zu urteilen.

I begin by noting that the books of the Bible were not sacred when they were written. Paul, for example, would have been amazed to know that his letters to his communities were to become sacred scripture. Rather, the various parts of the Bible became sacred through a process that took several centuries.

There's an epigram tacked to my office bulletin board, pinched from a magazine -- Wanting to meet an author because you like his work is like wanting to meet a duck because you like pâté.

Anybody who writes a book is an optimist. First of all, they think they're going to finish it. Second, they think somebody's going to publish it. Third, they think somebody's going to read it. Fourth, they think somebody's going to like it. How optimistic is that?

Writing is work. It's also gambling. You don't get a pension plan. Other people can help you a bit, but ­essentially you're on your own. ­Nobody is making you do this: you chose it, so don't whine.

Is that what writing amounts to? The voice your ghost would have, if it had a voice?

You need a certain amount of nerve to be a writer.

Anyone literate can take an implement in hand and make marks on a flat surface. Being a writer, however, seems to be a socially acknowledged role, and one that carries some sort of weight or impressive significance - we hear a capital W on Writer.

You need a certain amount of nerve to be a writer...an almost physical nerve, the kind you need to walk a log across a river.

All this is pure speculation. I don't really know what men used to say. I had only their words for it.

how outrageous could he get, in the realm of fatuous neologism, and still achieve praise?

Women do not usually write novels of the type favoured by men but men are known to write novels of the type favoured by women. Some people find this odd.

What really annoys me are the ones who write to say, I am doing your book for my final examinations and could you please tell me what the meaning of it is. I find it just so staggering--that you're supposed to explain the meaning of your book to some total stranger! If I knew what the meanings of my books were, I wouldn't have bothered to write them.

In a weak moment I have written a book...

Nothing you see on the Internet is mine unless it comes from one of my albums, books, HBO specials, or appeared on my website.

When it comes time to sit down and write the next book, you're deathly afraid that you're not up to the task. That was certainly the case with me after Snow Falling on Cedars.

I began writing 'Matterhorn' in 1975 and for more than 30 years I kept working on my novel in my spare time, unable to get an agent or publisher to even read the manuscript.

Writers are not just people who sit down and write. They hazard themselves. Every time you compose a book your composition of yourself is at stake.

I get over a hundred letters a day from all over the world, from children and parents, and it's a wonder I ever have time to write books, let alone speak!

Writing is hard, even for authors who do it all the time.

The opportunity to create a small world between two pieces of cardboard, where time exists yet stands still, where people talk and I tell them what to say, is exciting and rewarding.