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Writing A Book Quotes

Browse 351 quotes about Writing A Book.

Writing A Book Quotes

“Writing a book is like an unknown abyss, every time. Every book is different. Contrary to what unpublished writers think, it's horrible to have a book out.”

Thinking Writing Book Different Contrary Horrible Abyss Writing A Book

Author:Ethan Canin

“I think the books are the books. They were conceived as books. They weren't conceived as movies. When I write scripts, that's an idea and a situation that I think is a really good idea for a movie. When I'm writing a book, I'm not thinking, "Oh, this would be a great movie." This would be a very interesting book. And I think the books are things that cannot really be adapted into another medium.”

Thinking Writing Book Ideas Would Be Interesting Situation Scripts Mediums Good Ideas Very Interesting Writing A Book Adapted Interesting Book

Author:Bret Easton Ellis

“If you're writing a book that takes place in New York in the moment, you can't not write about 9-11; you can't not integrate it. My main character's view is the Statue of Liberty and the Trade Center. It doesn't have to take over, but it has to be acknowledged.”

Ifs Writing Book Moments Character Views Liberty New York Trade Statues Writing A Book Integrating Main Characters Statue Of Liberty

Author:Richard Price

“I am writing a book. So far I have the pages numbered.”

Writing Book Success Pages Writing A Book

Author:Steven Wright

“I cling to the fantasy that I could have done something more creative. Like actually writing a script, or writing a book. But the awful truth is that I... probably can't!”

Writing Book Done Creativity Fantasy Creative Truth Is Scripts Awful Writing A Book

Author:Hugh Grant

“I don't have goals when writing books, apart from getting to the end. I have rather vague ideas about how I want things to feel, I'm big on ambience. I have a title, a beginning and a probable ending and go from there.”

Want Feels Writing Book Ideas Ends Bigs Goal Titles Vague Writing A Book Ambience Vague Ideas

Author:Kate Atkinson

“Writing books is a nice retreat. There's nothing quite like diving into a book for a few hours. That is a big time vacation.”

Writing Book Bigs Hours Nice Vacation Retreat Writing A Book Diving

Author:Padgett Powell

“Most established novelists are writing books informed by experiences gained in their youth. Middle age is not the best time to be changing smartphones every six months or adopting new technology platforms - because we tend to get slower and less accommodating to change as we age.”

Writing Book Age Technology Middle Youth Months Six Novelists Platforms Six Months Middle Ages Writing A Book New Technology Best Times Adopting Smartphones

Author:Charles Stross

“Writing a book is as different from digital curation as night and day. Digital curation is a series of split-second decisions: good/no good. It can even be done algorithmically. Writing is process-intensive activity.”

Writing Book Different Done Night Process Decision Activity Series Digital Splits Writing A Book

Author:Guy Kawasaki

“I'm just having fun making jokes and writing books. But you see me once a year, I come on when I have a new book out, but basically, I've got my nose to the grindstone and I'm doing what I'm supposed to do in life, which is make stories.”

Writing Years Book Stories Fun Jokes Having Fun Noses Writing A Book New Books Just Have Fun Grindstone

Author:T.C. Boyle

“It is an admonition to myself when I am reading other people's books. Writing a book is very difficult to do, even a bad one. I try to remember that when reading someone else's work.”

People Writing Trying Book Remember Reading Difficult Writing A Book Book Writing Admonition

Author:Thomas L. Dumm

“I could not write my books without the library's help. Even with the ease of Internet research, I find books to be indispensable when I am writing. ... Books make me laugh, cry, and think. They give me insight into history, and into the lives of people in other cultures. They help me make important decisions, and they provide endless entertainment. Hooray for libraries!”

“The reason writers are such fragile beings, Marcus, is that they suffer from two sorts of emotional pain, which is twice as much as a normal human being: the heartache of love and the heartache of books. Writing a book is like loving someone. It can be very painful.”

Writing Humans Heart Two Book Reason Pain Suffering Human Beings Emotional Normal Painful Heartache Fragile Writing A Book Loving Someone Emotional Pain Book Writing

Author:Joel Dicker

“Writing a book is like loving someone. It can be very painful.”

Writing Book Painful Writing A Book Loving Someone

Author:Joel Dicker

“I began writing a book on love because I felt that the United States is moving away from love.”

Writing Book States Moving Felt United United States Moving On Writing A Book Moved On Moving Away Away From Love

Author:Bell Hooks

“When you're writing a book that is going to be a narrative with characters and events, you're walking very close to fiction, since you're using some of the methods of fiction writing. You're lying, but some of the details may well come from your general recollection rather than from the particular scene. In the end it comes down to the readers. If they believe you, you're OK. A memoirist is really like any other con man; if he's convincing, he's home. If he isn't, it doesn't really matter whether it happened, he hasn't succeeded in making it feel convincing.”

“I have long discovered that geologists never read each other's works, and that the only object in writing a book is a proof of earnestness.”

Writing Long Book Objects Proof Writing A Book Earnestness Geologist

Book:The Correspondence of Charles Darwin

Source: The Correspondence of Charles Darwin

“Nothing mattered ... but writing books, and living the kind of life that made it possible to write them.”

Writing Kind Made Book Made It Writing A Book

Book:My Antonia

Source: My Antonia

“Writing a book I have found to be like building a house. A man forms a plan, and collects materials.”

Men Writing Book Form Found House Plans Building Materials Writing A Book

Book:An Account of Corsica: The Journal of a Tour to that Island : and Memoirs of Pascal Paoli

Source: An Account of Corsica: The Journal of a Tour to that Island : and Memoirs of Pascal Paoli

“When one starts writing a book, especially a novel, even the humblest person in the world hopes to become Homer.”

World Writing Persons Book Novel Writing A Book

Author:Umberto Eco

“I labored for eight years thinking that I was writing a book for adults that was a nostalgic look back on childhood. Then my publisher informed me I'd written a children's book.”

Thinking Writing Years Looks Children Book Written Childhood Adults Eight Publishers Writing A Book Nostalgic Children's Books

Author:Jeff Kinney

“Whenever you're writing a book or creating a movie or a game, your first task is to get the reader to suspend disbelief, to buy into the logic and boundaries of your world, even though those boundaries might include things like dragons and magic.”

World Writing Firsts Book Might Games Magic Reader Creating Tasks Logic Boundaries Dragons Writing A Book Disbelief

Author:R. A. Salvatore

“When I'm writing a book I prefer not to speak about it, because only when the book is finished can I try to understand what I've really done and to compare my intentions with the result.”

Writing Trying Book Done Speak Results Intention Finished Compare Writing A Book

Author:Italo Calvino

“My favorite part of writing a book is thinking up the ideas, and that can start a long time before I actually sit down at my desk.”

Thinking Writing Long Book Ideas Long Time My Favorite Desks Writing A Book

Author:Anthony Horowitz

“The whole thing of working in all these different mediums, it's just so that I can always be playing hooky from one of them. I can always be rebelling against my boss. Like, I'm supposed to be writing this book, but - heh heh heh - I'm writing a movie, secretly. I'm procrastinating, and in my off-hours I'm working on this movie that I'm not allowed to do, because I'm supposed to be writing a book!”

Writing I Can Book Different Whole Hours Mediums Supposed To Be Boss Writing A Book Procrastinating

Author:Miranda July

“Making your bed could be a piece of art, and writing a book could be a piece of art. You could also write a book that's not a piece of art, but that is a book, and it could be a book that was written by an artist.”

Writing Art Book Artist Pieces Written Bed Writing A Book

Author:Matthew Brannon

“I had studied history at Brown and didn't feel like doing anything with it. What does one do with a history degree besides become a historian? And the professors in school, it seemed like they were just writing books for other professors to comment on, and vice versa - it was the most self-referential, boring world you could ever imagine.”

World Feels Writing Doe Book Self School Imagine Degrees Vices Boring Brown Comment Professors Historian Writing A Book Vice Versa

Author:Elizabeth Neel

“When you're writing a book, it's rather like going on a very long walk, across valleys and mountains and things [...] The highest mountain on the walk is obviously the end of the book, because it's got to be the best view of all, when everything comes together and you can look back and see that everything you've done all ties up. But it's a very, very long, slow process.”

Writing Looks Long Book Ends Done Together Process Walks Views Mountain Highest Ties Being The Best Valleys Writing A Book Long Walks

Author:Roald Dahl

“Progress was a labyrinth ... people plunging blindly in and then rushing wildly back, shouting that they had found it ... the invisible king-the élan vital-the principle of evolution ... writing a book, starting a war, founding a school.”

People Writing Book War School Found Principles Progress Evolution Kings Starting Invisible Founding Writing A Book Shouting Rushing Labyrinth

Book:The Complete Works of F. Scott Fitzgerald: Novels, Short Stories, Poetry, Articles, Letters, Plays & Screenplays: From the author of The Great Gatsby, The Side of Paradise, Tender Is the Night, The Beautiful and Damned, The Love of the Last Tycoon, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and many other notable works

Source: The Complete Works of F. Scott Fitzgerald: Novels, Short Stories, Poetry, Articles, Letters, Plays & Screenplays: From the author of The Great Gatsby, The Side of Paradise, Tender Is the Night, The Beautiful and Damned, The Love of the Last Tycoon, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and many other notable works

“Most authors liken the struggle of writing to something mighty and macho, like wrestling a bear. Writing a book is nothing like that. It is a small, slow crawl to the finish line. Honestly, I have moments when I don't even care if anyone reads this book. I just want to finish it.”

Ifs Want Writing Book Moments Care Lines Struggle Bears Honestly Wrestling Writing A Book Macho Finish Line

Book:Yes Please

Source: Yes Please

“Writing books isn't a drastic departure from writing for the stage.”

Writing Book Stage Writing A Book Departure Drastic

Author:George Carlin

“It eventually appeared to be me, cinematically. When I was writing it I was actually an author, you know, writing a book. ... But there certainly is a difference in energy between a younger man and an older man.”

Knows Men Writing Book Energy Differences Writing A Book Older Man

Author:Steve Martin

“Do you know what writing a book is? It's sitting alone in a room for weeks without making contact with another human. I felt like Howard Hughes.”

Knows Writing Humans Book Felt Rooms Week Sitting Contact Do You Know Writing A Book Sitting Alone

Author:Jon Stewart

“A professional writer is an amateur who didn't quit.”

Source: A Gift of Wings

“I'm thinking of writing a book on national health care. It will be 2,000 pages, and you'll have two hours to read it.”

Thinking Writing Two Book Care Hours Pages Health Care Writing A Book

Author:Ann Coulter

“I just want to touch something deep in the heart of humanity. I don't know if that's in movies, producing films, or writing a book, but I'm concerned about our spiritual well-being as a human race. I want to impact people in a way that makes us all reach for our best.”

People Ifs Knows Way Want Writing Humans Wells Heart Book Film Spiritual Humanity Race Concerned Impact Well Being Human Race Writing A Book

Author:Nicole Ari Parker

“I had the analysis of a million or so SNPs [single nucleotide polymorphisms] just to see what was there. That's partly because I was writing a book about DNA and personalized medicine and I thought it would be a little bit disingenuous to talk about what could be done without actually having the experiment done on yourself.”

Writing Littles Book Done Would Be Bits Millions Little Bit Medicine Experiments Analysis Dna Writing A Book Disingenuous Personalized

Author:Francis Collins

“I'm writing books. They're still a mix of fact and fiction and will continue to be. I think it's an interesting place to work.”

Thinking Writing Stills Book Facts Interesting Fiction Writing A Book Interesting Places Fact And Fiction

Author:James Frey

“I have no plan to retire anytime soon, although remember I am 50 years old! I do plan on the near future writing a book, that is definitely in the plans for my career.”

Writing Years Book Remember Careers Plans Retiring Writing A Book

Author:Vinnie Vincent

“Writing a book is a bit like going on location for a movie. You're absent from your life, your family, and your friends. You're psychologically gone, so you might as well be physically gone.”

Writing Wells Book Might Bits Gone Our Family Location Absent Writing A Book

Author:Michael Crichton

“There is a soak-the-rich attitude in the air, a feeling that if you have a lot of money you must have got it by some ghastly means. I can quite happily say there was never any family money. All the money we got was mine, just from writing books.”

Ifs Writing Mean I Can Book Feelings Attitude Rich Air Mines Lots Of Money Writing A Book Ghastly

Author:Terry Pratchett

“My fear is you have to be careful as a writer to not get caught up in social media and blogging, because it can start to feed into your writing time. When you are writing a book, it's such a long journey where the payoff is way at the end, sometimes years away. The payoff of the blog post is today. You get the reinforcement, comments or "likes" immediately. It's appealing. You have to be patient with the book.”

“I can't say that you should extract this or that value from my books explicitly. They are up for interpretation. In terms of the obligation, I think we're all individuals on this planet, trying to scratch our way through the day, and if you're writing a book exposing atrocities in Rwanda or writing a murder mystery set in a mountain village, I think both ways of spending you time are valid and both books are probably fine to read.”

“Mac [Barnett ] and I have been friends for more than ten years. We met working at an educational nonprofit. And we have been pranking each other the whole time. It's our own version of a prank war. We thought we would channel some of that energy into writing a book.”

Writing Years Has Beens Book War Whole Energy Mets Ten Educational Versions Writing A Book Macs Pranks Nonprofits

Author:Jory John

“Turning the blog into a book was extremely difficult, a tremendous amount of sustained, hard work. Blogging is easy; writing a book is difficult.”

Writing Book Hard Easy Difficult Hard Work Amount Blogs Writing A Book Blogging

Author:Kate Christensen

“I just can't fathom tweeting, and I'd rather spend my time writing a book than a blog, but I rather grudgingly agreed to a Facebook page. I had a brief, intense romance with Facebook. It's weirdly addictive, but anything that time-sucking is a danger for a writer who writes as slowly as I do. Now I post only occasionally and nothing very confessional. I think I'm carbon dating myself as I speak.”

Thinking Writing Book Romance Speak Danger Pages Dating Intense Posts My Time Carbon Blogs Writing A Book Fathom Facebook Page

Author:Debra Dean

“It's funny - for a long time, I didn't know I was writing a book. I was writing stories. For me, each story took so long and took so much out of me, that when I finished it, I was like, Oh my gosh, I feel like I've poured everything from myself into this, and then I'd get depressed for a week. And then once I was ready to write a new story, I would want to write about something that was completely different, so I would search for a totally different character with a different set of circumstances.”

Knows Want Feels Writing Long Book Different Character Stories Week Ready Circumstances Long Time Finished Writing A Book Different Characters Writing Stories Oh My Gosh

Author:Molly Antopol

“It is no fun at all to have been writing a book for seven or so years, especially when you've never published anything before.”

Writing Years Has Beens Book Fun Seven Writing A Book

Author:Chad Harbach

“A lot of my close friends had tolerantly washed their hands of the whole idea of me writing a book. They had said to themselves, "I don't know what he's doing."”

Knows Writing Said Book Ideas Whole Hands Writing A Book Close Friends

Author:Chad Harbach

“Writing a book is about me doing the work to get from the obsessive particular to something that reaches out of that in some meaningful way. It doesn't come easy to me. I really admire people who do it with acuity, but I don't, and for me it takes the process of working on a book for years to do any thinking that I feel accomplishes anything. I don't do it off the cuff well.”

People Thinking Way Feels Writing Years Wells Book Easy Process Particular Accomplish Meaningful Admire Reach Out Writing A Book Obsessive Cuffs

Author:Lucy Corin