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Book Quotes

“Having your book edited is like watching your cat being operated on. It's uncomfortable and someone is probably going to get hurt. Most likely the cat. But in the end, things work out for the best and your cat is better it. And then your cat gets released in hardcover, and you have to read all of his reviews.”

Book Ends Hurt Cat Work Out Uncomfortable Reviews Edited Things Work Out

Author:Jenny Lawson

“I really enjoy making sure the kids get a healthy dinner, a good bath and several books... I really like to try and end the day with some quality time with my kids. If not, I feel guilty.”

Ifs Feels Trying Book Ends Kids Enjoy Quality Healthy Dinner Guilty Baths Quality Time

Author:Norah O'Donnell

“We were never organized readers who would see a book through to its end in any sory of logical order. We weave in and out of words like tourists on a hop-on, hop-off bus tour. Put a book down in the kitchen to go to the bathroom and you might return to find it gone, replaced by another of equal interest. We are indiscriminate.”

Book Ends Might Order Interest Gone Return Reader Equal Kitchen Organized Hops Logical Bus Replaced Bathroom Sister Tourists

Author:Eleanor Brown

“Before 'Wings' came out, I told a few people that at the end of book one, readers should think Laurel made the right choice. Then, at the end of 'Spells,' they should understand why Laurel made the choice she did.”

People Thinking Should Made Book Ends Choices Reader Wings Spells Laurels Right Choices

Author:Aprilynne Pike

“I cry at the end of every book.”

Author:Hunter Parrish

“As a child I was really into fantasy books with elves and goblins and swords, and I went through a phase for a few years when I was reading endless series. But in the end I became totally fed-up with all these sub-Tolkien rip-offs because they all end up doing the same old things and there's no rigour to it.”

Years Children Book Ends Reading Fantasy Series Endless Feds Phases Rip Fed Up Fantasy Books Old Things Goblin Rigour Same Old Thing

Author:Jonathan Stroud

“You can't know what a book is about until the very end. This is true of a book we're reading or writing.”

Knows Writing Book Ends Reading Reading Or Writing

Author:Lynda Barry

“If you are going to make a book end badly, it must end badly from the beginning.”

Ifs Writing Book Ends

Book:The Complete Works of Robert Louis Stevenson: Novels, Short Stories, Poems, Plays, Memoirs, Travel Sketches, Letters and Essays (Illustrated Edition): The Entire Opus of Scottish novelist, poet, essayist and travel writer, containing Treasure Island, Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Kidnapped, Catriona and A Child's Garden of Verses

Source: The Complete Works of Robert Louis Stevenson: Novels, Short Stories, Poems, Plays, Memoirs, Travel Sketches, Letters and Essays (Illustrated Edition): The Entire Opus of Scottish novelist, poet, essayist and travel writer, containing Treasure Island, Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Kidnapped, Catriona and A Child's Garden of Verses

“I keep one simple rule that I only move in one direction - I write the book straight through from beginning to end. By following time's arrow I keep myself sane.”

Writing Book Ends Moving Simple Following Sane Arrows One Direction

Author:Jonathan Lethem

“If you think about movies that are adapted from books, they never feel like enough. There's always too much cut out in the end. You either make a five hour movie or you leave out stuff that should be in there.”

Ifs Thinking Feels Should Book Ends Enough Stuff Hours Five Too Much Cutting Adapted

Author:Jeremy Sisto

“It has long been a tradition among novel writers that a book must end by everybody getting just what they wanted, or if the conventional happy ending was impossible, then it must be a tragedy in which one or both should die. In real life very few of us get what we want, our tragedies don't kill us, but we go on living them year after year, carrying them with us like a scar on an old wound.”

Ifs Want Should Writing Years Long Book Real Ends Wanted Dies Novel Impossible Goes On Tradition Tragedy Wounds Real Life Scar Conventional Happy Endings Old Wounds

Author:Willa Cather

“The nice thing about a series is you can end on cliffhangers all the time. You can be like, 'You know what? Here we go, this person just died, end of book.' And with the end of the series, you're very conscious of all the plotlines that were left hanging. There's a balance there to wrap those up but still leave it exciting.”

Knows Persons Stills Book Ends Left Nice Like You Balance Conscious Exciting Died Series Wraps Nice Things Cliffhanger Left Hanging

Author:Richelle Mead

“As far as I'm concerned, I'm a writer who's writing books, and therefore, I don't want to die. You'd miss the end of the book, wouldn't you? You can't die with an unfinished book.”

Want Writing Book Ends Dies Missing Concerned Writing A Book Unfinished Wanting To Die

Author:Terry Pratchett

“I have always believed in the magic of childhood and think that if you get your life right that magic should never end. I feel that if adults cannot enjoy a children’s book properly there is something wrong with either the book or the adult reading it. This of course, is just a smart way of saying I don't want to grow up.”

Ifs Thinking Way Want Feels Should Children Book Ends Courses Reading Grows Enjoy Growing Up Magic Childhood Smart Adults Always Believe Children's Books Magic Of Childhood

Author:Colin Thompson

“I write because I want to end my loneliness. Books make people less alone. That, before and after everything else, is what books do. They show us that conversations are possible across distances.”

People Want Writing Book Ends Shows Loneliness Conversation Distance Before And After

Author:Jonathan Safran Foer

“I like to sit down every day and not know where the book is going. I have no idea where the book is going to go or how it's going to end as I'm writing it.”

Knows Writing Book Ideas Ends No Idea

Author:Ted Bell

“Many books are longer than they seem. They have indeed no end. The boredom that they cause is truly absolute and infinite.”

Book Ends Seems Causes Absolutes Infinite Boredom

Book:Novalis: Philosophical Writings

Source: Novalis: Philosophical Writings

“I think they thought it was very arrogant of me to write the end of my seven books series when I didn't have a publisher and no-one had heard of me”

Thinking Writing Book Ends Heard Series Seven Arrogance Arrogant Publishers

Author:J. K. Rowling

“You can watch an episode of Friends or an episode of Law & Order and just drop in, but you're not going to in the middle of Season 4, Episode 5 of Lost. It's like picking up a Harry Potter book and flipping to a chapter. You have to read it from beginning to end.”

Book Ends Law Order Lost Watches Middle Seasons Chapters Episodes Harry Potter Potters

Author:Damon Lindelof

“I always think it is kind of funny when it comes to wisdom, and I say God has a sense of humor, because my middle name is Solomon, and I love the Book of Proverbs which is written by Solomon, and I have read from the Book of Proverbs to start and end every day since I was 14.”

Thinking Kind Book Ends Names Written Middle Sense Of Humor Solomon God Has A Sense Of Humor

Author:Benjamin Carson

“I always hated those fantasy books where, at the end, all the kids had to go home. At the end of a Narnia book, you always got shown the door. Same with The Wizard Of Oz and The Phantom Tollbooth. You get kicked out of your magic land. It's like, "By the way, here's your next surprise: You get to go home!" And the kids are all like, "Yay, we get to go home!" I never bought that. Did anybody buy that?”

Way Book Ends Home Kids Next Fantasy Doors Magic Land Surprise Hated Wizards Phantoms Narnia Fantasy Books Phantom Tollbooth Yay

Author:Lev Grossman

“Who has a book of all that monarchs do, He's more secure to keep it shut than shown; For vice repeated is like the wand'ring wind, Blows dust in others' eye, to spread itself; And yet the end of all is bought thus dear, The breath is gone, and the sore eyes see clear To stop the air would hurt them.”

Source: The Plays and Poems of William Shakspeare: With the Corrections and Illustrations of Various Commentators

“Writing books isn't a drastic departure from writing for the stage. I've always written in the long format, five, eight, 10-minute pieces rather than one-liners, so since writing books, the process hasn't changed much. A piece in my live routine can end up as part of one of my HBO specials, and it can also end up in one of the books.”

Writing Long Book Ends Process Five Pieces Written Minutes Stage Changed Eight Routine Writing A Book Departure Format One Liner Hbo Drastic

Author:George Carlin

“In the case of 'Ocean at the End of the Lane,' it's a book about helplessness. It's a book about family, it's a book about being 7 in a world of people who are bigger than you, and more dangerous, and stepping into territory that you don't entirely understand.”

People World Book Ends Cases Dangerous Ocean Bigger Territory Lanes Helplessness About Family

Author:Neil Gaiman

“The waitress comes over to me like, 'What'chu readin' for?' I had never been asked that. Not 'What am I reading?' but 'What am I reading for?' Goddammit, you stumped me. Hmm, why do I read? I suppose I read for a lot of reasons, one of the main ones being so I don't end up being a... waffle waitress.”

Book Ends Reason Reading Waitress Hmm Waffles

Author:Bill Hicks

“You can’t know a book until you come to the end of it, and then all the rest must be modified to fit that.”

Knows Book Ends Fit

Author:Maxwell Perkins

“Final Execution is Wolverine's spotlight arc. He goes through a crazy thing here. I think the fear with him is that he's in so many books that his growth can become stagnant. He ends this story in a very different place.”

Thinking Book Different Ends Stories Growth Crazy Finals Execution Different Place Arcs Spotlight Stagnant Crazy Things

Author:Rick Remender

“The latest gorgeous entry in the Belknap Press' growing library of annotated Jane Austen novels arrives, this time the mighty Emma under the exactingly careful guidance of Bharat Tandon of the University of East Anglia. Belknap has once again done its end of the job superbly: the book is a physical treat-luxuriantly over-sized, heavy with quality paper and solid binding, decked out in a beautiful cover and dozens of well-chosen illustrations throughout. This is one of the prettiest Jane Austen volumes available in bookstoresthis season.”

“For Borges, the core of reality lay in books; reading books, writing books, talking about books. In a visceral way, he was conscious of continuing a dialogue begun thousands of years before and which he believed would never end.”

Way Writing Years Book Ends Reality Reading Talking Conscious Lays Core Dialogue Reading Books Continuing Writing A Book Book Reading Book Writing Visceral Borges

Book:With Borges

Source: With Borges

“There are great science books that were conceived as books. Feynman's famous introductory lectures in physics, which have a beginning and an end, which are written with style.”

Book Ends Written Style Physics Lectures Great Science Science Books

Author:David Gelernter

“When you close the book, does the story end? No! That's such a bland way to read. Every story goes on forever in our imaginations, and its characters live on.”

Way Doe Book Ends Character Stories Imagination Forever Goes On Bland

Author:Mizuki Nomura

“Even if you're doing something that the studio sends you, or something that's based on a book or story, at the end of it all, you try to make whatever it is your own. This is based on my love of horror movies. Everything is based on something, in some way.”

Ifs Way Trying Book Ends Stories Horror Studios

Author:Tim Burton

“As a comic book artist, once you become a master, you end up a slave. In fine art you're always free... since I couldn't make it at Marvel, I made my life a carnival.”

Art Made Book Ends Artist Masters Fine Slave Comic Comic Book Fine Arts Carnivals

Author:Mark Kostabi

“The edge of a painting is its frontier... where the artist negotiates his boundaries with the real world... where art begins and ends and where the eye enters and leaves the image. It determines, in an infinitely subtle number of ways, how you read a painting - which, unlike a book or a piece of music, has no pre-determined beginning or end.”

World Way Art Book Real Ends Eye Artist Numbers Pieces Painting Art Is Edges Determine Determined Boundaries Subtle Real World Frontiers

Author:Andrew Graham-Dixon

“Let us read with method, and propose to ourselves an end to which our studies may point. The use of reading is to aid us in thinking.”

Thinking May Book Ends Use Reading Study Method Library Aids Literacy Librarian Propose

Author:Edward Gibbon

“In the end all books are written for your friends. The problem after writing One Hundred Years of Solitude was that now I no longer know whom of the millions of readers I am writing for; this upsets and inhibits me. It's like a million eyes are looking at you and you don't really know what they think.”

Thinking Knows Writing Years Book Ends Problem Eye Millions Written Reader Solitude Hundred Upset One Hundred Years Of Solitude

Author:Gabriel Garcia Marquez

“Many, perhaps most, very learned people prefer the company of their books to sitting in a crowd listening to history and art being mangled; furthermore, it is unlikely that the venerable scholars will stand up afterward to declare, "This lecture was a load of crap." The more profound a professor's distaste with the proceedings, the more likely he is to melt away at the end of the talk.”

People Art Book Ends Company Listening Art Is Sitting Profound Crowds Professors Scholar Load Crap Unlikely Lectures Proceeding Distaste History And Art

Author:Camille Paglia

“The post-war "publish or perish" tyranny must end. The profession has become obsessed with quantity rather than quality. [...] One brilliant article should outweigh one mediocre book.”

Should Book War Ends Quality Profession Brilliant Tyranny Posts Obsessed Articles Quantity Mediocre Publish Post War

Author:Camille Paglia

“To begin with, I hold that there is never an end; everything of which our life is composed, pictures and books as much as anything else, is a means only, in the sense that the work of art exists in the body of the movement of life. It may be a strong factor of progress and direction, but we cannot say that it is the end or reason of things, for it is so much implicated with them ; and when we are speaking of art we suddenly find that we are talking of life all the time.”

May Mean Art Book Ends Reason Body Life Is Strong Talking Our Lives Progress Movement Factors Works Of Art

Book:Wyndham Lewis the Artist

Source: Wyndham Lewis the Artist

“The point of page one is to make people turn to page two and if at the end of the book people think that the book was good value for money, you have achieved something, because if you haven't achieved those things you're not going to achieve the other thing.”

People Ifs Thinking Two Book Ends Values Turns Achieve Havens Pages Good Values

Author:Terry Pratchett

“Generally I start writing when I have even the smallest idea of how a book is going to go, because the physical process of writing itself keeps the mind active and focused on the job at hand. Usually I write in about 5 drafts, but that simply means there are 5 definite times when I go in a linear fashion from the beginning to the end of the book.”

Writing Mind Mean Book Ideas Ends Hands Jobs Process Fashion Active Focused Smallest Definite Linear

Author:Terry Pratchett

“I just wanted to be the first one to fly for America, not because I'd end up in the pages of history books.”

Firsts Book Ends Wanted America Pages History Books

Author:Alan Shepard

“When you're reading a novel, I think the reason you care about how any given plot turns out is that you take it as a data point in the big story of how the world works. Does such-and-such a kind of guy get the girl in the end? Does adultery ever bring happiness? How do winners become winners?”

Thinking World Kind Doe Book Ends Reason Stories Bigs Care Guy Turns Girl Reading Given Novel Data Winner Plot Adultery

Author:Elif Batuman

“As I've indicated, most books go out of print within one year. The same is true of music and film. Commercial culture is sharklike. It must keep moving. And when a creative work falls out of favor with the commercial distributors, the commercial life ends.”

Years Book Ends Film Moving Fall Culture Creative Favors Print Keep Moving Creative Work Distributors

Book:Free Culture: The Nature and Future of Creativity

Source: Free Culture: The Nature and Future of Creativity

“I used to be embarrassed because I was just a comic-book writer while other people were building bridges or going on to medical careers. And then I began to realize: entertainment is one of the most important things in people's lives. Without it they might go off the deep end. I feel that if you're able to entertain people, you're doing a good thing.”

“You do not chop off a section of your imaginative substance and make a book specifically for children, for, if you are honest, you have no idea where childhood ends and maturity begins. It is all endless and all one.”

Ifs Children Book Ideas Ends Imagination Childhood Honest Endless No Idea Substance Maturity Sections Imaginative

Author:P. L. Travers

“Books, like lives, are always unfinished even when they end, for to write is to struggle with contingency, to impose a certain false order upon the endless, and endlessly frustrating, nature of thought.”

Writing Book Ends Certain Order Struggle Endless Frustrating Unfinished Contingency

Book:The World We Want: Restoring Citizenship in a Fractured Age

Source: The World We Want: Restoring Citizenship in a Fractured Age

“The Occupy Wall Street collective is confused about what it wants but it wants it now! Some of the loonier demands from its independent thinkers: Striking all existing public and private debt from the books across the "entire planet"; elimination of all international borders; free college education; a guaranteed "living wage" for all regardless of employment; an end to free trade; trillions in additional spending for infrastructure and ecological restoration; and ending the fossil fuel economy.”

“When coming up with Wonder Woman cover designs, sometimes people will pitch ideas to me, either the writer or the editor. And it's interesting, because I know they're not trying to, but they end up pitching things that end up feeling like damsel-in-distress covers, where the tension comes from her needing to be rescued somehow. And it's something I immediately push back against.”

People Knows Trying Book Ideas Ends Sometimes Feelings Interesting Wonder Design Comic Tension Editors Distress Comic Book Pitching Wonder Woman Damsel In Distress

Author:Cliff Chiang

“Writing is not an end in itself but life transmuted into radiance.”

Writing Book Ends Language Radiance

Book:Sean O'Casey, from times past

Source: Sean O'Casey, from times past