Possibly there are few imaginative writers who have not a leaning, secret or avowed, to the occult. The creative gift is in very close relationship with the Great Force behind the universe; for aught we...

Writers were a strange sort; I knew that much from the newspapers.

If we are artists- hell, whether or not we’re artists- it is our job, our responsibility, perhaps even our sacred calling, to take whatever life has handed us and make something new, something that wouldn’t...

Writing is about taking everyday observations, things which people see almost every day of their lives, and yet bringing it to their attention for the very first time.

And it’s great to have all these readers and fans who, for the most part, are very nice people, saying they love the books and the TV show. But there are so many of them...

Like most novelists, I like to do exactly the opposite of what I’m told. It’s in my nature as a novelist. Novelists can’t trust anything they haven’t seen with their own eyes or touched with...

I’m dazzled by your facility. In ten days you’ll have written six stories! I don’t understand it… I’m like one of those old aqueducts: there’s so much rubbish cogging up the banks of my thought...

My creatures are born of a long denial,” seems to me the best definition of writing as a kind of exorcism, casting off invading creatures by projecting them into universal existence, keeping them on the...

To write a good book, you must read one book for each page of the book you are about to write.

Here was the world-famous novelist with her penchant for detail; yet, in her observations of a prostitute with a customer, she had failed to come away with the most important detail of all. She could...

Meeting writers is usually disappointing, at best. Writers who write sexy thrillers aren’t necessarily sexy or thrilling in person. Children’s book writers might look more like accountants, or axe murderers for that matter. Horror writers...

It is very difficult to win. It’s not in my script.

Saturated Arrogance…she rebuked those about herin darkness did she dwella pathetic historyall mortal man would tell..

I propose that every person out of work be required to submit a book report before he or she gets his or her welfare check.

. . . All artists’ work is autobiographical. Any writer’s work is a map of their psyche. You can really see what their concerns are, what their obsessions are, and what interests them.

Writers are nothing more than borderline schizophrenics who are able to control the voices.

…a writer without authority? Impossible. as Kenneth Burke says, creation implies authority in the sense of originator….

My ideas are a shapeless mass that my writing molds into beauty.

As a writer, I like the list of “things to strive for” that Richard Yates kept above his typewriter:genuine claritygenuine feelingthe right wordthe exact English sentencethe eloquent detailthe rigorous dramatization of story

Do Engineers have stories, Jack?” he asked. “What?” Jack said, without moving.”Stories. Myths. Things to keep the boredom out on a long shift.””I think they play cards, mostly,” Jack answered. It was a lie, but...

Crippled and crazy, we hobble toward the finish line, pen in hand.

I wonder if that’s the perennial story of writers: you find the true light, you lose the true light, you find it again. And maybe again.

I’ve met talespinners before, Jake, and they’re all cut more or less from the same cloth. They tell tales because they’re afraid of life.

Meeting writers is always so disappointing. I got over wanting to meet live writers quite a long time ago. There is this terrific book that has changed your life, and then you meet the author,...

Writers should provoke disagreement.

Writing is a profession that has no real career structure and your best advice when you hit a difficulty is probably going to come from another writer one or two rungs on the career ladder...

Forever encased in the amber of a writer’s prose.

You cannot write unless you write much.

People can think only in images. If you want to be a philosopher, write novels.

Writers write to influence their readers, their preachers, their auditors, but always, at bottom, to be more themselves.

How I work is I work from of very character-driven place. And I trust the writers.

If I write as well as I golf, I’m in trouble!

When you write a manuscript, it feels like being in a relationship with someone. You’ll hate it, get bored with it, be pissed of, like you just want to break up. But, just like any...

Stories have the ability to take us inside all kinds of life.

If the voice inside your head doesn’t sound anything like you, you might be a writer.

What is it about us lady authors and our fascination for the exclamation mark?

Waandishi ni wadadisi.

The defining lines of reality have always been a bit blurred for me.

Souls are more important than stories, yes. But stories are a window to the soul. Without stories, the soul suffocates.

He had a book to finish. Ten-thousand words. The other ninety thousand had been difficult. This last tenth seemed impossible. His plot had become derailed. He was unable to see his way through the smoke...

She had words in her heart which she released thru her fingertips.

Writers aren’t exactly people…. They’re a whole bunch of people trying to be one person.

A lot of things happen in our lives without any apparent justification. but whatever happens to us,takes us one step ahead in the path of self realisation.the truth is we all are travellers in the...

I get interested in writers who are enigmatic.

The greatest moments of creativity come in absolute solitude, when one’s mind is free from distraction and able to probe the depths of the impossible.

As long as you write, you’ll never be lonely.

…if he can write a book at all, a writer cannot do it by peeping over his shoulder at somebody else, any more than a woman can have a baby by watching some other woman...

There are so many talented young writers named Jonathan, with whom by comparison I suffer terribly.

No matter what level of success, there is no such thing as a secure writer

When I got up this morning the sea was full of sun pennies – and now it all seems to be covered in lemon scrim. Writers ought to live far inland or next to the...