Writing Quotes

I think I am less self-assured when I write English than I would be if I were writing in my first language. I have to test each sentence over and over to be sure that it's right, that I haven't introduced some element that isn't English.

Louis Begley
- Writing
- English
You can write a great book and be ignored. Literary history is full of classics that were under-appreciated in their own time.

William Landay
- Writing
- Book
- Ignored

One book at a time... though I'm usually doing the research for others while I'm writing, but that sort of research is fairly desultory and I like to stick to the book being written - and writing a book concentrates the mind so the research is more productive.

Bernard Cornwell
- Time
- Mind
- Book
I tried writing this book about a singer in a wedding band, but realized I only wanted to write the book so I could have an excuse to sing with a wedding band as research. That's not a good enough reason to write a book.

Megan McCafferty
- Good
- Book
- Band
Whenever you think you're writing what other people want to hear from you, and that it'll be commercial, you're doomed to disaster. Writing has to be as truthful and specific as we can make it. The minute we think that we're reaching more people and pleasing them, we get general. And audiences sense that and turn away, shun us.

Terrence McNally
- Writing
- Hear
- Truthful
My grandfather had been a newspaper reporter, as was my uncle. They were pretty good writers and so I thought maybe somewhere down the line I would do some writing.

Gene Hackman
- Good
- Pretty
- Uncle
I stopped dying the moment I started writing

Arnon Grunberg
- Writing
- Moments
- Dying
I wasn't good at the sciences; I wasn't a good enough athlete. The only thing I could do was mow lawns. So I thought that writing or teaching was what I wanted to do.

Owen King
- Good
- Writing
- Athlete