Short-story writing requires an exquisite sense of balance. Novelists, frankly, can get away with more. A novel can have a dull spot or two, because the reader has made a different commitment. Lynn Abbey
Since writing JAWS, I've been lucky enough to do close to forty television shows about wildlife in the oceans, and yes, I have been attacked by sea creatures once in a while. Peter Benchley
So, whenever I'm writing, I'm writing in the presence of all the other books I've read and I think we all are. Justin Cronin
Some say I'm an overnight success. Well, that was a very long night that lasted about 10 years. But while I do, of course, now feel the pressure having had books that have been very successful, I just know I have to concentrate on writing for myself. I can't worry about genres or markets or what might be commercial or not. That never works. Kate Morton
Substitute 'damn' every time you're inclined to write 'very'; your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be. Mark Twain
That's the best thing about writing, when you're in that zone, you're porous, ready to absorb the solution. Michael Chabon
That's what writing is all about, after all, making others see what you have put down on the page and believing that it does, or could, exist and you want to go there. Anne McCaffrey
The act of writing requires a constant plunging back into the shadow of the past where time hovers ghostlike. Ralph Ellison
The actual writing time is a lot shorter than the thinking time. I don't do too many notes. I keep it mostly in my head. I usually start writing a new book around January, and it's due October 1. Harlan Coben
The arrogance that says analysing the relationship between reasons and causes is more important than writing a philosophy of shyness or sadness or friendship drives me nuts. I can't accept that. Alain de Botton
The beautiful part of writing is that you don't have to get it right the first time, unlike, say, a brain surgeon. You can always do it better, find the exact word, the apt phrase, the leaping simile. Robert Cormier
The best thing about writing programs is that it rationalized the apprenticeship of a writer. Russell banks
The child from nine to 12 interests me very much. And so, those were the years that I like to write about, when I'm writing. Judy Blume
The first four months of writing the book, my mental image is scratching with my hands through granite. My other image is pushing a train up the mountain, and it's icy, and I'm in bare feet. Mary Higgins Clark
The funny thing about writing is I think a lot of people assume that you're sitting in a garret with a quill pen for hour after hour. Lincoln Child
The most important thing when starting out with essay writing is to find a voice with which you're comfortable. You need to find a persona that is very much like you, but slightly caricatured. Anne Fadiman
The object is very clear in the fight against racism; you have reasons why you're opposed to it. But when you're writing a novel, you don't want the reader to come out of it voting yes or no to some question. Life is more complicated than that. Margaret Atwood
The process of writing a novel begins with a pang, a moment of recognition, and a situation, a character, or something you read in a paper, that seems to go off, like a solar flare inside your head. Martin Amis