“I like to say …
“I like to say that this is my ‘fuck you’ book.”
— Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie on her novel, Americanah
“There is no su…
“There is no surer foundation for a beautiful friendship than a mutual taste in literature.”
— P.G. Wodehouse
“As the hours c…
“As the hours crept by, the afternoon sunlight bleached all the books on the shelves to pale, gilded versions of themselves and warmed the paper and ink inside the covers so that the smell of unread words hung in the air.”
— Maggie Stiefvater, Shiver
Writers shouldn…
Writers shouldn’t underestimate the difficulty of what they’re doing, and they should treat it with great seriousness. You’re doing something that really matters, you’re telling stories that have an impact on other people and on the culture. You should tell the best stories you can possibly tell and put everything you’ve got into it.
| — | David Guterson |
If the real wor…
If the real world were a book, it would never find a publisher. Overlong, detailed to the point of distraction-and ultimately, without a major resolution.
| — | Jasper Fforde, Something Rotten |
Watson,” said h…
Watson,” said he,”if it should ever strike you that I am getting a little overconfident in my powers, or giving less pains to a case then it deserves, kindly whisper ‘Norbury’ in my ear, and I shall be infinitely obliged to you.
| — | Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, from “The Adventure of the Yellow Face” in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes |
Don’t worry abo…
Don’t worry about being original, she said dismissively. Yes, everything’s been written, but also, the thing you want to write, before you wrote it, was impossible to write. Otherwise it would already exist. You writing it makes it possible.
| — | Alexander Chen reminisces about studying with Annie Dillard |
The writer’s jo…
The writer’s job is to get the main character up a tree, and then once they are up there, throw rocks at them.
— |
Vladimir Nabokov |
If you are not able to travel…
“If you are not able to travel, he told me, the next best thing is to read. Read all you can, girl. And store up that knowledge, for you never know when you will need it.”
–Paula Brackston, The Winter Witch
All human being…
All human beings have a sickness in their minds. That space is a part of them. We have a sane part of our minds and an insane part. We negotiate between those two parts; that is my belief. I can see the insane part of my mind especially well when I’m writing—insane is not the right word. Unordinary, unreal. I have to go back to the real world, of course, and pick up the sane part. But if didn’t have the insane part, the sick part, I wouldn’t be here.
— Haruki Murakami