Quotes About Authorship

I have no models in Japanese literature. I created my own style, my own way.

Before my book, 'California,' came out, I had modest hopes for it. Or, let's put it this way - I had the same hopes that every literary fiction writer in America has: I wanted the novel to be well-received, critically. As for sales? I didn't want it to disappoint, but I didn't expect it to be a best-seller, either.

I get up to write while it's still dark, 5 or 5:30. I start by editing and rewriting everything I did the day before, and that gives some momentum for the day.

And out of a desire essentially to imitate what I was reading, I began to write, like a clever monkey.

I love writing, and I am never as happy as when I have a week, a month - three months - with nothing to do but write.

It's my job to write the best book I can each month and hand my scripts in. Everything else is beyond my control.

The fastest I've ever done a book is a 112,000-word book in about a month.

I'm definitely not a monthly guy. Probably never will be. I'm simply in awe of the guys who do monthly books well... hell, in awe of people who do monthlies period.

I'm not the monthly comic guy, and I never really have been.

I spent two months on the first draft, working 8 hours a day, five days a week.

When I'm writing, my mood is very good - and I love life.

I don't know exactly where the ideas come from. One day, a sentence just popped into my head - 'There was going to be trouble, and, hell, he just wasn't in the mood for it' - and I knew I had a novel.

I've grown more and more appreciative of good writing, and I now really hope I can become a better and better writer.

I think 'Miracle's Boys' made more people aware of my work.

The simple fact is, the more people who buy your books, the more are likely to read you. That's what I'd like to see happen.

Putting ideas into a book means I can help even more people by getting the book into everyone's hands.

If you can write and create original characters, do your own show, develop your own material, it gives you more power than just waiting around to be hired.

My best writing is often early in the morning and, sometimes, while working out.

I work in the mornings almost exclusively.

A lot of people have always asked, is Penn Cage me? And I say no. There's an early character in an earlier novel, 'Mortal Fear,' that's closer to me.

I think that what I do, in terms of how I craft my words rhetorically, is fairly simple stuff. I don't mean that to denigrate myself. I mean that in the sense of, when I write, the person that I keep in mind is my mother-in-law.

There is no motivation higher than being a good writer.

Usually a feeling of disappointment follows the book, because what I hoped to write is not what I actually accomplished. However, it becomes a motivation to write the next book.

I have written my work, not as an essay which is to win the applause of the moment, but as a possession for all time.