I am hard at work on the second draft … Second draft is really a misnomer as there are a gazillion revisions, large and small, that go into the writing of a book.

Authors always carry a means for scribbling and an excuse for pausing, often inopportunely, to record those fleeting sparks of creative fancy that might otherwise vanish like a wisp in the wind if ignored. Writing...

A hammer made of deadlines is the surest tool for crushing writer’s block.

Only a few short years ago, the average stay-at-home mom spent her relaxation time reading Jackie Collins and staring at the pool boy. Now, half of them are outselling Jackie Collins writing porn about the...

Writing romantic fiction is the second chance that loved ones denied us.

My fingers burn behind the keys of my typewriter, the lettering fading with every thoughtful strike. The many words I write I dare not stall; my mind perpetually alert for my magnum opus call.

There is probably no hell for authors in the next world–they suffer so much from critics and publishers in this one.

I hope for what I always hope for as a writer: a critical but kind reader. I think that is what we all hope for.

I am reading Proust for the first time. Very poor stuff. I think he was mentally defective.

Knowing that others want to read my writing is the greatest inspiration to write.

There is something silly about a man who wears a white suit all the time, especially in New York.” (on Tom Wolfe)

The man she wanted existed only in the romantic novels she was reading. She had met him. But he would never meet her.

It was one of the dullest speeches I ever heard. The Agee woman told us for three quarters of an hour how she came to write her beastly book, when a simple apology was all...

Always write exactly what you’re feeling at the exact moment when writing something like poetry or an emotional novel. Put yourself, pour all emotions into your work…make yourself cry, feel joy if you are writing...

Intercourse is one thing, Intimacy is everything. Be encouraged

Bare lists of words are found suggestive to an imaginative and excited mind.

When male authors write love stories, the heroine tends to end up dead.

Some stories have to be written because no one would believe the absurdity of it all.

There should be more to writing than entertaining an already-brain-dead society and making money. If not,then you miss the point of writing.

At the end of the day your ability to connect with your readers comes down to how you make them feel.

I love the longueurs of a book even if they seem pointless because you can get a peek into the author’s mind, a glimpse of their creative soul.

Do you look like the photograph on your book jackets? Authors, I find, seldom do.

Any conversation including the mention of Roald Dahl, Ray Bradbury, or Emily Dickinson is one worth getting into or at least eavesdropping.

If you write without reading, you will certainly have too many books without readers.

As with many people, Charles, who could not talk, wrote with fullness. He set down his loneliness and his perplexities, and he put on paper many things he did not know about himself.

A shrink and a patient in a love-hate relationship. Who is REALLY the boss?

The writer has little control over personal temperament, none over historical moment, and is only partly in charge of his or her own aesthetic.

An author’s strong belief and enthusiasm will affect the writing of the book and often the publisher’s commitment to it.

It is, of course, not only impossible for readers to know the intention of most, if not all, writers, but an author himself may think he is writing one thing while he is in fact...

Quiet people have the loudest minds.

Grabbing readers by the imagination is a writer’s job.

Fiction and non-fiction are only different techniques of story telling. For reasons I do not fully understand, fiction dances out of me. Non-fiction is wrenched out by the aching, broken world I wake up to...

Having to amuse myself during those earlier years, I read voraciously and widely. Mythic matter and folklore made up much of that reading—retellings of the old stories (Mallory, White, Briggs), anecdotal collections and historical investigations...

Hard core authors are determined about their craft, and they know that building a brand entails hard work. They eat, breathe and live their writing.:

The finder of his theme will be at no loss for words.

An author really ought to have nothing but flowers in the room where he works.

problem” is to vex, annoy, threaten or harrass them, you are almost certainly a bigger asshole.6. You may also be twelve.7. You are not responsible for anyone else’s actions or karma, but you are responsible...

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...

A demon, who serves to a warlock, begins tormenting his master, if he has not enough work. Talent is the demon.

Authors are the closest thing man would come to understanding God. It is a remarkable thing to conjure up a life and create its story.

Am reading more of Oscar Wilde. What a tiresome, affected sod.

I enjoy self-publishing & sending publishers rejection letters. They’re like, ‘Who is this guy?’ And I’m like, ‘the end of your industry.

Author? Author? Did you write these legs?”Yes.”‘Well, I don’t like dem. I don’t like ’em at all at all. I could ha’ writted better legs meself.

The most intriguing people you will encounter in this life are the people who had insights about you, that you didn’t know about yourself.

The word ‘NO’ is the best motivation there is for the storyteller in you.

Authors, he thought. Even the sane ones are nuts.

The best way of writing sex scenes is to do the first draft, orgasm, and then start editing. You can be objective post-orgasm.

I don’t think writers compete, I think they’re all doing separate things in their own style.

Being a bestseller doesnt mean they wrote a great book. Just means they knew a lot of people who would buy it.

As with men, it has always seemed to me that books have their own peculiar destinies. They go towards the people who are waiting for them and reach them at the right moment. They are...