Quotes About Authorship

Usually it takes me about nine to 12 months to write a book.

It generally takes me about nine months from the point the book is conceived to the point my editor sends it off to be typeset.

It took us nine months to write 'The East'; we didn't start writing it on the computer until seven and a half months into it.

I get the impression sometimes that a play arrives in a sequence of events that I have no control over.

Whether I am writing about a man or woman makes no difference in terms of difficulty.

I think it's the people who have no doubt that every word they put down is gold that probably don't write very well.

My ego is one thing. Of course I want people to like what I do. Of course. There's no doubt. You wouldn't do it. But I think what people don't fully know is how responsible you feel for so many entities. So many hardworking people who've collaborated.

I've never been willing to commit to more than one at a time, because I just don't know - I don't plan the books out ahead of time. So I have no idea how much ground we'll cover.

There's no point for me in being a writer and having all these blocked places where I feel I can't think freely and imagine freely. There just really is no point.

Where would David Copperfield be if Dickens had gone to writing classes? Probably about seventy minor characters short, is where. (Did you know that Dickens is estimated to have invented thirteen thousand characters? Thirteen thousand! The population of a small town!)

You may think that you don't want to read about the problems of being brought up Mennonite, but the great thing about books is that you'll read anything a good writer wants you to read.

But in the end, it isn't up to the writer to decide how his or her work will be used.

Writing is a conversation with reading; a dialogue with thinking.

I think the hardest thing about writing is writing. [Interview clip in the In Memoriam section of the 85th Academy Awards ceremony, Feb. 24, 2013]

If you knew Norman Mailer and me and were asked to guess which of us cared more about sex, you would, of course, pick Norman Mailer. How wrong you would be.

A writer never finds the time to write. A writer makes it. If you don't have the drive, the discipline, and the desire, then you can have all the talent in the world, and you aren't going to finish a book.

good a writer." "I'm not bad, but you're right, book form isn't my strength. I'll hire a ghost this time.

The New Testament is historically reliable. This is evidenced by: a. Early testimony b. Eyewitness testimony

I hope for what I always hope for as a writer: a critical but kind reader. I think that is what we all hope for.

That's why I write, because life never works except in retrospect. You can't control life, at least you can control your version.

Hey, you created me! I didn't create some loser alter-ego to make myself feel better. Take some responsibility!

At least Anne Frank," Comrade Snarky said, "never had to tour with her book . . .

By writing , people present their lives as fiction and tackle their issues as a craft exercise . By redeeming their protagonist , they find their own redemption .

If you're dedicated to becoming an author, nothing I can say here will stop you. But if you're not, nothing I can say will make you one.