Best book & thinking Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings

“An early editor characterized my books as 'romantic comedy for intelligent adults.' I think people see them as funny but kind. I don't set out to write either funny or kind, but it's a voice they like, quirky like me... And you know, people like happy endings.”

People Thinking Knows Writing Kind Book Voice Comedy Adults Intelligent Like Me Editors Happy Endings Quirky

Author:Elinor Lipman

“At the same time, I think books create a sort of network in the reader's mind, with one book reinforcing another. Some books form relationships. Other books stand in opposition. No two writers or readers have the same pattern of interaction.”

Thinking Mind Two Book Form Reader Patterns Opposition Interaction

Author:Margaret Mahy

“To me I think artists in general make a statement - and for the rest of their lives - every album, every book - are variations on a theme.”

Thinking Book Artist Albums Statements Theme Variation

Author:Mark Mothersbaugh

“I think people would actually be surprised by what we put out. Unfortunately the shadow that the original founders cast was that they were just artists that can't write books so people swept the whole of Image with that paintbrush.”

People Thinking Writing Book Whole Artist Shadow Originals Casts Founders Paintbrush

Author:Todd McFarlane

“Luckily I haven't fallen into the trap, which has claimed so many writers, of living from day to day thinking 'Ah, I'll write a book about that.'”

Thinking Writing Book Havens Fallen Traps Day To Day Amelie

Author:Amelie Nothomb

“The only pressure I feel is to write good books. And to not replicate the previous book. Whether you have a thousand readers or a million readers it doesn't change the pressure. I never feel tempted to give the reader what I think the reader wants.”

Thinking Want Giving Feels Writing Book Millions Reader Thousand Pressure Tempted Good Book Replicate

Author:Jo Nesbo

“I hate to think of a day where a compelling book or a compelling authorial voice would be lost simply because that person doesn't have a Web site. But I think that, to use the Internet in a positive way, to turn people on to reading, is something that authors shouldn't really shy away from necessarily.”

People Thinking Way Persons Book Use Would Be Hate Turns Reading Lost Voice Internet I Hate Shy Compelling Site

Author:Marisha Pessl

“She never managed to find herself in these books no matter how hard she tried, exhuming traits from between the pages and donning them for an hour, a day, a week. We think in some ways, we have all done this our whole lives, searching for the book that will give us the keys to ourselves, let us into a wholly formed personality as though it were a furnished room to let. As though we could walk in and look around and say to the gray-haired landlady behind us, "We'll take it."”

Thinking Way Giving Looks Book Matter Hard Done Whole Hours Walks Rooms Behinds Week Keys Personality Pages Whole Life Gray Traits Sister

Author:Eleanor Brown

“Well, first you have to love writing. A lot of authors love having written. But I enjoy the actual writing. Beside that, I think the main reason I can be so prolific is the huge amount of planning I do before I start to write. I do a very complete, chapter-by-chapter outline of every book I write. When I sit down to write, I already know everything that's going to happen in the book. This means I've done all the important thinking, and I can relax and enjoy the writing. I could never write so many books if I didn't outline them first.”

Ifs Thinking Knows Writing Firsts Wells Mean I Can Important Book Reason Done Happens Enjoy Written Huge Amount Planning Relax Chapters Outlines

Author:R. L. Stine

“You can't. Do you hear me? You think you've figured something out? You run over here so pleased with yourself because you changed your mind. Now you're certain. You're so... sloppy. You don't know anything. The book, the math, the dates, the writing, all that stuff you decided with your buddies, it's just evidence. It doesn't finish the job. It doesn't prove anything.”

Thinking Knows Writing Mind Book Running Jobs Certain Stuff Changed Prove Evidence Decided Logic Math Certainty Uncertainty Reasoning Buddy Ontology Sloppy You Changed

Author:David Auburn

“Catch me on a good day, I think half of my books aren't too bad. Catch me on a bad day, I think I've never written a good line.”

Thinking Book Lines Half Written Good Day Bad Day Catch Me

Author:Dennis Lehane

“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

“Teen problem novels? I can go through them like a box of chocolates. And there are fantasy books out now that need a lot more editing. Fantasy got to be so popular that people began to think 'We don't need to be as diligent with the razor blade,' but they do.”

People Thinking Needs I Can Book Problem Fantasy Novel Boxes Chocolate Editing Blades Razors Diligent Fantasy Books Box Of Chocolates

Author:Tamora Pierce

“I don't write for an audience, I don't think whether my book will sell, I don't sell it before I finish writing it.”

Thinking Writing Book Audience Sells

Author:Ann Patchett

“I don't think the problem is that people don't read enough mystery books, but that people don't read.”

People Thinking Book Enough Problem Mystery

Author:Thomas Perry

“It's important, I think, for a writer of fiction to maintain an awareness of the pace and shape of the book as he's writing it. That is, he should be making an object, not chattering.”

Thinking Should Writing Important Book Fiction Awareness Objects Shapes Pace

Author:Thomas Perry

“A lot of writers, especially crime writers, have an image that we think we're trying to keep up with. You've got to be seen as dark and slightly dangerous. But I'm not like that and I've realised that I don't need to put that on. People will buy the books whether they see a photo of you dressed in black or not.”

People Thinking Needs Trying Book Black Dark Dangerous Crime Realised

Author:Ian Rankin

“I used to think that: whenever I heard that someone had taken 10 years to write a novel, I'd think it must be a big, serious book. Now I think, 'No - it took you one year to write, and nine years to sit around eating Kit Kats.”

Thinking Writing Years Book Bigs Used Novel Taken Heard Serious Eating Nine Nine Years

Author:Ian Rankin

“I'm often asked how I write books, but I don't think my approach is suitable for everyone. If I walked into a creative writing class, all I could say to them was 'I tend to make it up as I go along.' I'm not sure that's brilliant advice.”

Ifs Thinking Writing Book Class Creative Advice Approach Brilliant Not Sure Creative Writing Suitable

Author:Ian Rankin

“My first novel was turned down by half a dozen publishers. And even after having published five or six books, I wasn't making enough money to live on, and was beginning to think I'd have to give up the dream of being a full-time writer.”

Thinking Giving Firsts Book Enough Dream Half Novel Five Giving Up Six Dozen Publishers Turned Down

Author:Ian Rankin

“I wrote for years before I was ever published, and I don't think I could ever stop. That said, I was also a veterinarian before I sold my first book, and I still volunteer my time to help with animal welfare causes. So that is a career I would be happy to return to - while still secretly writing strange stories back in my doctor's office.”

“I think that the mark of a great book is that it will meet you wherever you're at and you'll feel and experience something new and different each time you read it.”

Thinking Feels Book Different Mark Something New Great Book

Author:Josh Radnor

“You won't see me writing about particle physics, or even planetary geology, or chemistry. I practically failed chemistry, and if I had to write a book in any of those areas, I don't think it would go well.”

Ifs Thinking Writing Wells Book Areas Physics Chemistry Particles Geology Particle Physics

Author:Mary Roach

“I want that which is hilarious and that which is heartbreaking to occupy the same territory in the book because I think they very often occupy the same territory in life, much as we try to separate them.”

Thinking Want Trying Book Territory Heartbreaking

Author:Richard Russo

“I think I had a particular moment when I was 15 years old. I read 'Crime and Punishment,' and that book just, I think, more than any other book made me want to be a writer, 'cause it was the first time that I hadn't just entered a book, but a book had entered me.”

Thinking Want Years Firsts Made Book Moments Causes Crime Particular First Time Punishment Crime And Punishment

Author:Ron Rash

“I know in this time of great technological advancement, the idea of reading a book seems almost anachronistic, but I think it's worth preserving.”

Thinking Knows Book Ideas Seems Reading Technological Advancement Technological Advancement

Author:Garth Stein

“I just write the books that I think I would want to read.”

Thinking Want Writing Book

Author:Curtis Sittenfeld

“In some ways I think it would be very dignified if I went away for twenty years and then wrote my fourth book.”

Ifs Thinking Way Years Book Would Be Twenties Fourth

Author:Curtis Sittenfeld

“The fact is that in this day and age I don't think any novelist can assume that a book will get attention.”

Thinking Book Facts Age Attention Assuming Novelists This Day

Author:Curtis Sittenfeld

“I don't think there was a particular book that made me want to write. They all did. I always wanted to write.”

Thinking Want Writing Made Book Wanted Particular

Author:Elizabeth Strout

“It appeared that after first contemplating a book on some subject, and after giving serious preliminary attention to it, I needed a period of subconscious incubation which could not be hurried and was if anything impeded by deliberate thinking.... Having, by a time of very intense concentration, planted the problem in my subconsciousness, it would germinate underground until, suddenly, the solution emerged with a blinding clarity, so that it only remained to write down what happened as if in a revelation.”

“You don't realize what a strain it is on the nerves to write or think-of-writing all day long, and to sleep full of nervous dreams, and to wake up not knowing who one is: this all stems from anxiety about finishing the book, about time 'growing short', etc., and the perpetual strain of invention.”

Source: Windblown World: The Journals of Jack Kerouac, 1947-1954

“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

“I think that whenever a book is not a challenge, I'm telling the wrong story.”

Thinking Book Stories Challenges

Author:Maggie Stiefvater

“There is a very definite Russian heart in me; that never dies. I think you're born and you live your life with it and you die with it. I'm very much an American - my books tend to be about American things, but inside there's that sort of tortured, long-suffering, aching, constantly analysing Russian soul underneath the happy American exterior.”

Thinking Heart Long Book Soul Suffering Dies Born Live Your Life Definite Exterior Long Suffering Analysing

Author:Paullina Simons

“If I read a book that impresses me, I have to take myself firmly by the hand, before I mix with other people; otherwise they would think my mind rather queer.”

People Ifs Thinking Mind Book Hands Impress

Book:The diary of a young girl

Source: The diary of a young girl

“I think it's a very old and deep-seated double standard that holds that when a man writes about family and feelings, it's literature with a capital L, but when a woman considers the same topics, it's romance, or a beach book - in short, it's something unworthy of a serious critic's attention.”

Thinking Men Writing Book Feelings Romance Literature Attention Serious Standards Critics Beach Topics Unworthy About Family Double Standard

Author:Jennifer Weiner

“I love 'The Stand;' I read it when I was a kid - it was one of my favorite books when I was growing up. I love Stephen King; I think he's a remarkable writer.”

Thinking Book Kids Growing Up Growing Kings My Favorite Remarkable Favorite Book

Author:David Yates

“I think you will agree that I am alive in every part of this book; turn back twenty, thirty, one hundred pages - I am back there. That is why I hate the story; characters are not snakes that they must shed their skins on every page - there can only be one action: what a man is. When you have understood this, you will be through with novels.”

Thinking Men Writing Book Character Stories Action Hate Turns Novel Alive Pages Understood Hundred Skins I Hate Twenties Agree Thirty Shed Snakes I Am Alive

Author:Kenneth Patchen

“...But I don't think I'm the only person who is tired of books and movies full of paper-doll characters you don't care about, who have no self-respect and no respect for anybody or any institution....And I don't want to sound preachy or Victorian, but I'm tired of amorality in fiction and in real life. Immorality is a fascinating human dilemma that creates suspense for the readers and tension for the characters, but where is the tension in an amoral situation? When people have no personal code, nothing is threatening and nothing is meaningful.”

“I think that's what turns young men and women into writers - the happiness you discover living in books.”

Thinking Men Writing Book Young Turns Men And Women Young Man

Author:Paul Auster

“I'm afraid of coaching, of writer's classes, of writer's magazines, of books on how to write. They give me centipede trouble - you know the yarn about the centipede who was asked how he managed all his feet? He tried to answer, stopped to think about it, and was never able to walk another step.”

Thinking Knows Giving Writing Book Able Language Answers Walks Steps Class Trouble Feet Give Me Magazines Coaching Yarn Centipedes

Author:Robert A. Heinlein

“I think of every book as a single entity, and some have later gone on to become a series, often at the request of readers.”

Thinking Book Gone Reader Series Entity Request

Author:Lois Lowry

“Early on I came to realize something, and it came from the mail I received from kids. That is, kids at that pivotal age, 12, 13 or 14, they're still deeply affected by what they read, some are changed by what they read, books can change the way they feel about the world in general. I don't think that's true of adults as much.”

Thinking World Way Feels Stills Book Kids Age Realizing Changed Adults Affected Mail Pivotal

Author:Lois Lowry

“I don't for one second think about the possibility of censorship when I am writing a new book. I know I am a person who cares about kids and who cares about truth and I am guided by my own instincts, and trust them.”

Thinking Knows Writing Persons Book Care Kids My Own Possibility Instinct Censorship Who Cares New Books

Author:Lois Lowry

“I tend not to think about audience when I'm writing. Many people who read "The Giver" now have their own kids who are reading it. Even from the beginning, the book attracted an audience beyond a child audience.”

People Thinking Writing Children Book Kids Reading Audience Giver

Author:Lois Lowry

“I'm an enormous fan of Thomas Bernhard's books, and I like the relentless feeling in his work - the pursuit of darkness, the negative - and I think in some sense I've internalised that as what one is supposed to do.”

Thinking Book Feelings Darkness Fans Negative Pursuit Enormous Relentless

Author:Ben Marcus

“I think it's very hard for us, for Christians, to understand that it's okay to read a book, for instance, on how to manage your time. There's nothing wrong with that.”

Thinking Book Hard Christian Okay Instance Manage

Author:Donald Miller

“The kind of stuff I usually read is a bit more on the literary side, like books that I think are influential in the sense that they're doing pulpy subject matter in a refined way. Like 'The Road' by Cormac McCarthy, I loved that book.”

Thinking Way Kind Book Matter Stuff Bits Sides Subjects Influential Subject Matter Refined

Author:Isaac Marion

“But I do think it's important to remember that writers do not have a monopoly of wisdom on their books. They can be wrong about their own books, they can often learn about their own books.”

Thinking Important Book Remember Monopoly

Author:China Mieville

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