Authors Quotes

“Authors, he thought. Even the sane ones are nuts.”
― Dan Brown, The da Vinci Code

“Well, writing novels is incredibly simple: an author sits down…and writes.

Granted, most writers I know are a bit strange.

Some, downright weird.

But then again, you’d have to be.

To spend hundreds and hundreds of hours sitting in front of a computer screen staring at lines of information is pretty tedious. More like a computer programmer. And no matter how cool the Matrix made looking at code seem, computer programmers are even weirder than authors.”
― Christopher Hopper

“In the end, what makes a book valuable is not the paper it’s printed on, but the thousands of hours of work by dozens of people who are dedicated to creating the best possible reading experience for you.”
― John Green

“The standard personality type for a writer is a shy megalomaniac.”
― John Lanchester

“Despite the fact that he loves books and owns a bookstore, A.J. does not particularly care for writers. He finds them to be unkempt, narcissistic, silly, and generally unpleasant people. He tries to avoid the ones who've written books he loves for fear that they will ruin their books for him.”
― Gabrielle Zevin, The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry

“Write from the heart. A book without a pulse is like a person without a spirit." Linda Radke, President of Five Star Publications”
― Linda F. Radke

“... And the only way to find that honesty is to not overthink it.

For your writing to come alive--to be multi-dimensional--you must barter away some control.”
― Elizabeth Sims

“There is bad in all good authors: what a pity the converse isn't true!”
― Philip Larkin, Philip Larkin: Letters to Monica

“All Jane Austen novels have a common storyline: an attractive and virtuous young woman surmounts difficulties to achieve marriage to the man of her choice. This is the age-long convention of the romantic novel, but with Jane Austen, what we have is Mills & Boon written by a genius.”
― P.D. James, Talking About Detective Fiction

“We as authors sign a pact with our readers; they'll go on reading because they trust us to play fair with them and deliver what we've promised.”
― Pamela Glass Kelly, From Inspiration to Publication: How to Succeed As a Children's Writer Advice from 15 Award Winning Writers

“I don't know much about creative writing programs. But they're not telling the truth if they don't teach, one, that writing is hard work, and, two, that you have to give up a great deal of life, your personal life, to be a writer.”
― Doris Lessing

“Book publishing would be so much easier without the authors.”
― Dan Brown, The Lost Symbol

“Rows and rows of books lined the shelves and I let my eyes linger on the sturdy spines, thinking how human books were, so full of ideas and images, worlds imagined, worlds perceived; full of fingerprints and sudden laughter and the sighs of readers, too. It was humbling to consider all these authors, struggling with this word or that phrase, recording their thoughts for people they'd never meet. In that same way, the detritus of the boxes was humbling - receipts, jotted notes, photos with no inscriptions, all of it once held together by the fabric of lives now finished, gone.”
― Kim Edwards, The Lake of Dreams

“Between the lines of every book the writer reveals their own secrets.”
― Chloe Thurlow, The Fifty Shades of Grey Phenomena

“Writing romantic fiction is the second chance that loved ones denied us.”
― Shannon Alder

“What one means by integrity, in the case of the novelist, is the conviction that he gives one that this is the truth. . . . When one so exposes it [integrity] and sees it come to life one exclaims in rapture, But this is what I have always felt and known and desired! And one boils over with excitement, and, shutting the book even with a kind of reverence as if it were something very precious, a stand-by to return to as long as one lives, one puts it back on the shelf.”
― Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own

“And I love Jane Austen's use of language too--the way she takes her time to develop a phrase and gives it room to grow, so that these clever, complex statements form slowly and then bloom in my mind. Beethoven does the same thing with his cadence and phrasing and structure. It's a fact: Jane Austen is musical. And so's Yeats. And Wordsworth. All the great writers are musical.”
― Andrew Clements, Things Hoped For

“Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart. ~William Wordsworth

Being an author is like being in charge of your own personal insane asylum. ~Graycie Harmon”
― L.A. Dale, Heart of Glass

“I doubt if ever one ceases to love, but one can cease to be in love as easily as one can outgrow an author one admired as a boy.”
― Graham Greene, Doctor Fischer of Geneva or The Bomb Party

“A reader reads a book. If it’s a good book, he forgets himself. That’s all a book has to do. When the reader can’t forget himself and keeps having to think about the writer the whole time, the book is a failure. That has nothing to do with fun. If it’s fun you’re after, buy a ticket for a roller coaster.”
― Herman Koch, Dear Mr. M

“If you can read & write then the opportunities are endless, if you just believe in yourself then anything is possible, you can become anyone and do anything, what’s more is, you can take others with you!”
― Philip L. Moore

“If you are working with authors, you are accepting a great responsibility and must tread very carefully. The author's work is a part of herself, a creative endeavor she has poured her heart and soul into. Protecting and nurturing that work and the author is part of the job of a publisher.”
― Terena Scott, What You Need to Know to Be a Pro; The Business Start-Up Guide for Publishers

“You can, of course, write to inspire others… but most importantly, you must write to inspire yourself.”
― Jessica Swan

“Writers and artists know that ethereal moment, when just one, fleeting something--a chill, an echo, the click of a lamp, a question—-ignites the flame of an entire work that blazes suddenly into consciousness.”
― Nadine C. Keels

“When many story-tellers occupy themselves with a social world which offers no great variety of lively action, their stories will probably resemble one another as to many of the major incidents, and if they draw on these limited resources like spend thrifts such resemblances will be inevitable--and therefore not significant.”
― Mary Lascelles, Jane Austen And Her Art

“The finder of his theme will be at no loss for words.”
― J.V. Cunningham

“All trademarks, company names, registered names, products, characters, mottos, logos, jingles and catchphrases used or cited in this work are the property of their respective owners and have only been mentioned and or used as cultural references to enhance the narrative and in no way were used to disparage or harm the owners and their companies. It is the author's sincerest wish the owners of the cited trademarks, company names, etc. appreciate the success they have achieved in making their products household names and appreciate the free plug.”
― E.A. Bucchianeri, Brushstrokes of a Gadfly

“Thus far, the only people who can grant you immortality are not scientists, but writers. By writing you into their books, they may not only immortalize you, but also grant you superpowers.”
― Charbel Tadros

“The very best authors are no longer with us; so only read books written by dead people.”
― Kevin Ansbro

“Criticism should not be querulous and wasting, all knife and root-pulling, but guiding, instructive, and inspirational--a south wind and not an east wind.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson