A writer only begins a book. A reader finishes it.
Keep reading and writing, learn how to revise, and push through rejections. My second book, Monsoon Summer, was rejected over 20 times and finally came out 11 years after my first book! I'm glad I didn't give up. Neither should you.
Reading and writing are the same thing; it's just one's the more active and the other's the more passive. They flow into each other.
If you don't have the time to read, you don't have the time or the tools to write.
If there's a book you really want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it.
So the writer who breeds more words than he needs, is making a chore for the reader who reads.
Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start somewhere.
Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.
You must find time for reading, or surrender yourself to self-chosen ignorance.
The greatest part of a writer's time is spent in reading in order to write. A man will turn over half a library to make a book.
A novelist has two lives-- a reading and writing life, and a lived life. he or she cannot be understood at all apart from this.
Read, read read. Read everything.
Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body and prayer is to the soul.
Characterization is an accident that flows out of action and dialogue.
Fiction is the truth inside the lie.
We are a species that needs and wants to understand who we are. Sheep lice do not seem to share this longing, which is one reason why they write so little.
The most beautiful things are those that madness prompts and reason writes.
When I get a little money I buy books; and if any is left I buy food and clothes.
How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.
Find the key emotion; this may be all you need know to find your short story.
Literature is an occupation in which you have to keep proving your talent to people who have none
Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout with some painful illness. One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven on by some demon whom one can neither resist nor understand.
It is perfectly okay to write garbage – as long as you edit brilliantly.
A writer is somebody for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.
Writing is the only thing that, when I do it, I don't feel I should be doing something else.
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