Quotes About Publication

My first short story sale was to a magazine that sat on the story forever... and never did publish it.

To me a book is a message from the gods to mankind; or, if not, should never be published at all.

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.

While I was writing I assumed it would be published under a pseudonym, and that liberated me: what I wrote was exactly what I wanted to read.

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.

In 2011, 'Yourself in the World,' a book of my writings and interviews, was published in conjunction with a retrospective of my work at the Whitney Museum of American Art.

Once a discovery has been published, there is no way of un-publishing it.

If Truman hadn't published 'Answered Prayers' in parts, he'd have had the drive to finish it. The peacocks took it away from him.

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

I didn't care where my works were published.

But the first published thing I did was a detective story, detective novel, and I did that on my own.

I published, privately, a collection of my serious poetry I had written over the years. I only published 50 copies, which I gave to friends, in a special deluxe edition. It was ridiculously expensive but I'm glad that I did it.

Exclusive will not be published in book format.

I didn't have any concept of Trainspotting being published. It was a selfish act. I did it for myself.

I never liked the idea of giving interviews. One says many things, but when they are published, they become shortened, condensed. The ideas lose their meaning.

For me, just being published feels like success.

'Britain's Royal Families' became my first published book, in 1989, from The Bodley Head, and the rest of the story is - dare I say it? - history!

I don't reread my books after they're published, because it's agony.

I write as a matter of need - seven books and God knows how many short stories before anyone published me.

I had a high school English teacher who made me really work at writing. And once, when I got an assignment back, she'd written: 'This is so good, Andrew. This should be published!' That made a big impression on me.

At 18, my first short story was published - I was paid a penny a word by a science fiction magazine. I continued to write, and five years later I published my first novel, 'Sweetwater.'

The story wrote quickly. I called it 'Where You're From,' and I sent it out, as I had numerous other stories over the years. Except this time I got a letter back saying that it would be published. Someone out there had liked the story. I was thirty-one years old.

My first published work was when I was 19, in 'Playgirl.' It was an odd experience but exciting.

John Updike's first published book was a collection of poems.