Quotes About Authorship

It was Crabcalf who, surrounded and walled in by the hundreds of unsold copies of his ill-fated novel, felt that he if anyone should be the judge not only of literature, but all that went on behind the sordid scenes.

No woman has ever written enough.

No black woman writer in this culture can write 'too much'. Indeed, no woman writer can write 'too much'…No woman has ever written enough

Every writer must bring three major factors to each story that he writes. They are ideas, artistry and craftsmanship.

Writing is a solitary occupation.

Life is a book and you are its author. You detemine its plot and pace and you--only you--turn its pages.

and dear friend, Dale McCleskey, for taking the in-depth study I wrote by the same title and reformatting it into this book. His partnership in this work and many others is invaluable to me. Our earnest prayer is not so much that you meet David but that you

Woman novelists seem to have a reputation for being dowdy.

If you here require a practical rule of me, I will present you with this: 'Whenever you feel an impulse to perpetrate a piece of exceptionally fine writing, obey it - whole-heartedly - and delete it before sending your manuscript to press.'

Quite a lot is required of writers these days in terms of, if not promoting the work, then being a representative of the work. It's a difficult thing, really.

Writers cannot simply have a go, imagining it's easier to produce a story than a novel because fewer words are required. Have a go by all means; be intrepid, but be equipped.

Of course, to publish something, you have to write it, polish it, then hire out the line editing, copy editing and cover design. After which, you pick your way through the minefield of conforming to the differing requirements of Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Smashwords, or hire someone to do it for you.

I don't do any research. It's all about gut. Editing - it's always about gut.

I'm publicizing the book that's done. I'm writing the book that's in the hopper, and I'm doing a little advance research on the book to come.

I use the city because it saves time, I don't have to do a lot of research on the setting.

Honest to God, I do all the research on these books myself.

I have a book coming out in September, for example, where the plot concerns counterfeiting, and I had to do a lot of research on that. Or on any legal matters, for example, I have to do a lot of research online.

Everything I know, I write about. My only research is what I did.

If I could do what Hilary Mantel does, I would probably do that. She is more intelligent and a better researcher and knows more what she's about than I do.

Outlining is not writing. Coming up with ideas is not writing. Researching is not writing. Creating characters is not writing. Only writing is writing.

I spend eight months outlining and researching the novel before I begin to write a single word of the prose.

I really enjoy researching, and for almost every piece, I research enough to write a book.

I'm a journalist, not an advocate, so I approached researching and writing the book the same way that I do any other reporting. But when you're writing for yourself, you have a little more room to say what you think.

What qualified me to write about Israel was that I wanted to; it took no time to convince myself. The only reservation I had was about eaven: I wanted to write about the Jewish heaven but did not feel qualified because I did not and do not believe in 'it,' though I should.