My Books Quotes

Two dads have sent me letters that said my books changed their daughters' lives. I send them packages with T-shirts and posters because, come on ... that's the coolest. ~ Simone Elkeles

All I could do was scream, "How dare you! What have you DONE?! Put my books back! ~ Mary Ann Shaffer

My books are based on the "what if" principle. "What if you became invisible?" or "What if you did change into your mother for one day?" I then take it from there. Each book takes several months in the long process of writing, rewriting, writing, rewriting, and each has its own set of problems. The one thing I dislike about the writing process is the sometimes-loneliness of it all. Readers only get to see the glamour part of a bound book, not some of the agonizing moments one has while constructing it. ~ Mary Rodgers

I don't care if my books don't sell abroad; we have a large enough market in our country. I write for Indian readers. ~ Ashwin Sanghi

My dream is that all South Africans from all walks of life will have the opportunity to read my books and use the information therein to successfully invest in property ~ Jason Lee

If you think that I am mad now, then take away my books, and you'll find I've completely gone insane! ~ Jen Selinsky

People always ask what a book is about, as if it has to be about something. I don't want to write books that lend themselves to that sort of description. My books are more a kind of breaking-down. ~ Jonathan Safran Foer

My books are a subject of much discussion. They pour from shelves onto tables, chairs and the floor, and Chaz observes that I haven't read many of them and I never will. You just never know. One day I may - need is the word I use - to read Finnegans Wake, the Icelandic sagas, Churchill's history of the Second World War, the complete Tintin in French, 47 novels by Simenon, and By Love Possessed. ~ Roger Ebert

My priority is my books, at least at this point. What I have to do is write the narrative of this time. ~ Haruki Murakami

I love this planet because Inspiration comes from everywhere. I named one of my books after a verse in a song I heard in my friend's car. ~ Mahmoud Shaker

All of my books are based in some way on my personal experiences, or the experiences of members of my family, or the stories kids would tell me in school. ~ Patricia Reilly Giff

I want to make a summing up, brief and to the point, but thorough. I have never suppressed a word in my books out of regard for other people and their prejudices. ~ John Henry Mackay

I'm always surprised when large numbers of people buy my books. ~ Patricia Cornwell

I don't know if foreigners will take to my novels or not. It may be that my books appeal only to a particular gender or age group rather than convey a more universal appeal. ~ Natsuo Kirino

My university degree is in art and, yes, I do a lot of drawing for all my books. I have a big drafting table set up in a spare bedroom and I cover it with maps and house plans and sketches that I use in the books. Also, I truly love architecture, so that plays a big part in all my books. ~ Jude Deveraux

I've learned a hell of a lot from [William S.] Burroughs. I think the best things in my books probably are inspired by Burroughs. I think about what Burroughs wrote and then I try to go one step further. And I may go one step back; I don't know. ~ Robert Anton Wilson

I am often asked why I use a variety of pen names. The answer is that this way readers always know which of my three worlds they will be entering when they pick up one of my books. ~ Jayne Ann Krentz

I have Black guys who tell me they put my books on their bed stands to read at night like something for guidance or information. That really pleases me a lot. I think my work has changed some things. It's changed me. ~ Ishmael Reed

All my books reflect travel adventures of some kind, and all have a soul: a spiritual or mystical underpinning. ~ O.R. Melling

In my books, there is always a prince, and he always happens upon the damsel in the most unexpected places. ~ MarcyKate Connolly

I think what makes good children's books is putting the same care and effort into it as if I was writing for adults. I don't write anything - put anything in my books - that I'd be embarrassed to put in an adult book. ~ Louis Sachar

Many of my books are written from a female perspective. I rather enjoy the take that women have on the world, and certainly I enjoy the conversations that women have. ~ Alexander McCall Smith

If you would like to know more about me look to the pages of my books and you'll find me in between the lines. ~ Jim Cherry

But I do go in for books. I love to own books. Though I read few books twice, I have filled every shelf in my house with books, have had more shelves made and filled those too. My books surround me like a cocoon. When I run my finger along the backs of my books they feel like the ribcage of an old familiar lover. Visit my shelves and you will learn much about me. ~ Joe Bennett

I do the same with my books ... Nothing like a good argument in the margins with someone who's already said all they have to say on the subject. ~ Betsy Cornwell

I am political in spite of myself. I don't want to do the things I know I have to do, don't want to expose myself to disapproval, to retribution, don't want to go to meetings and demonstrations, distribute leaflets, don't want to ask people for signatures, for money.

I don't do these things as naturally as I breathe, the way I imagine real political people do, real communists, real socialists and feminists, real radicals, real troublemakers, real champions of the people. I do them because I know I've got to, because I am convinced it's the only way to make changes, to stop abuses. I do them almost as a last resort. I do them because I've been putting off doing them, avoiding them for months, because finally the necessity has gripped me and overcome my reluctance, my desire for the warmth of my room, for my books, for my people, for the reassurance of my homely habits. ~ Rosario Morales

To divert myself from a troublesome fancy, it is but to run to my books; they presently fix me to them, and drive the other out of my thoughts, and do not mutiny to see that I have only recourse to them for want of other more, real, natural, and lively conveniences; they always receive me with the same kindness. ~ Michel De Montaigne

I don't tend to do category fiction very well. One of my problems when I was starting off was that publishers were hesitant to handle my books because they were never sure what I was going to do next. ~ Joanne Harris

Anyone I love takes away part of my freedom, but in that case it is I who wished it; and there is so much pleasure in loving that one gladly sacrifices something for its sake. Any one who loves me takes away all my freedom. Anyone who admires me (as a writer) threatens to take it away from me. I even fear those who understand me, which is why I spend so much time covering my tracks - both in my private life and in the persona I express through my books. What would have delighted me, had I loved god, is the thought that god gives nothing in return. ~ Henry De Montherlant

I was always more interested in my books and my writing than going out. It's OK to say I'm a nerd. That's me. ~ Samantha Shannon

I lay no claim, it should be clear, to being a historian. So in my books, the intimate and personal have been intertwined inextricably with the broad and historical. ~ Khaled Hosseini

All of my books now come from readers' ideas. ~ Ann Rule

My books come to me in images, and sometimes the image is at the beginning of the book, and sometimes it's simply a flash somewhere in the middle. ~ Robert Crais

My books have done extremely well, I know. But I don't honestly feel much different from when I began to write. I still think we have a long way to go. I suppose my name means more in Nigeria today than it did five years ago. But I feel the job that literature should do in our community has not even started. It's not yet part of the life of the nation. We are still at the beginning. It's a big beginning, because now we are catching the next generation in the schools. When I was their age, I had nothing to read that had any relevance to my own environment. ~ Chinua Achebe

When I take my hand out of this blanket," he thought, "my nail will be grown back, my hands will be clean. My body will be clean. I'll have on clean shorts, clean undershirt, a white shirt. A blue polka-dot tie. A gray suit with a stripe, and I'll be home, and I'll bolt the door. I'll put some coffee on the stove, some records on the phonograph, and I'll bolt the door. I'll read my books and I'll drink coffee and I'll listen to music, and I'll bolt the door. I'll open the window, I'll let in a nice, quiet girl
not Frances, not anyone I've ever known
and I'll bolt the door. I'll ask her to read some Emily Dickinson to me
that one about being chartless
and I'll ask her to read some William Blake to me
that one about the little lamb that made thee
and I'll bolt the door. She'll have an American voice, and she won't ask me if I have any chewing gum or bonbons, and I'll bolt the door. ~ J.D. Salinger

My books already threatened to take over my part of the room and keep on going ... whatever cargoes of words I could lay my hands on I gave safe harbor. ~ Ivan Doig

I find it almost impossible to throw a book away. Anyway, what some call hoarding, others might call building a library. So, I can justify my books. I believe I justify them in a perfectly rational way. ~ Joanne Limburg

I write both at home and at coffee shops, and I have a terrible work ethic - I have a tendency to write most of my books right before the deadline. I'm trying to work on that, but so far, I'm not getting any more organized. ~ Elizabeth Hoyt

The bewildering success of my books continues to surprise me. ~ Khaled Hosseini

I think the child I was until 12 was so much more interesting than the teenager I became. As a teenager, you get wrapped up in your friends and sexual stuff, and the imaginative life you had, it just goes. And mine was so rich and fun. Fortunately, I was able to tap back into that later on [through my books] to save my life. ~ Judy Blume

I guess there is also an element of deliberate change involved. Each of my books has been, at least from my point of view, radically different from the last. ~ George Murray

I'm sure we would not have had men on the Moon if it had not been for Wells and Verne and the people who write about this and made people think about it. I'm rather proud of the fact that I know several astronauts who became astronauts through reading my books. ~ Arthur C. Clarke

Go ahead, make me mad, I'll just use you in one of my books. ~ Millicent Ashby

...Okay... probably now you have read all my books up to now..., you have check out everything what I have and you are asking what more???
Check out horror and try to understand it! ~ Deyth Banger

When people are tired of erotica and paranormal, my books will be waiting to entertain and give readers a little something to thing about. And hopefully some hope and a bit of wisdom. ~ T.A. Munroe

In general-like not just in fiction but in life-it doesn't work out well when someone imagines someone else as a manic pixie dream girl or an Edward Cullen or anything other than a full, complex human being. That said, while I've tried to reflect that in my books, I don't think I've always succeeded, because I am always running up against my own insufficiencies and biases etc. ~ John Green

One person reads the book, and cannot help telling a friend. That is vastly superior to any kind of advertisement, or clever magazine article. That is also the great power of the internet, where people share their opinions without the annoying screen of the media, and so much of the presence of my books has come from the Internet. It's a new era, a new form of war, and I embrace it. ~ Robert Greene

'Legends Walking' was the first of my books to go to a second printing based on strong initial orders, but much of that printing never found its audience. ~ Jane Lindskold

I do then with my friends as I do with my books. I would have them where I can find them, but I seldom use them. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Whenever people ask me, "How are your books doing?" or, "How is your book doing?" I just say, "It's okay." I mean, what am I supposed to say? I'm a writer; that means I write because I need to write, because that's how I breathe and that's how I bleed. I'm not an author; I'm a writer. Even when I don't want to write; I can't stop! So, how are my books doing? The hell I know! The moment after I publish one book, I'm writing another one! I don't know how my books are doing! I just know that I'm writing them! I'm a writer, I'm a writer. I'm not an author. ~ C. JoyBell C.

I'm not a collector. I don't keep letters, or books, or souvenirs. But I do keep one copy of each translation of my books into a foreign language. Have you ever seen a murder story printed in Singhalese? Wow! ~ Rex Stout

I want to position my books as premium-priced versions on the reasonably-priced scale, if that makes sense, to find a sweet spot between the high-end of what my brand can support and the low end that results in impulse purchases and maximum sales volume. ~ Barry Eisler

The next day we moved my things, that is to say all my books, which had now grown to number two and a half thousand titles, a fact which Anders and Geir, who were helping me with the move, cursed from the bottom of their hearts as we shifted the boxes from the lift into the flat. ~ Karl Ove Knausgaard

My books were my prized possessions. I had a bookshelf where I put them, and I was so proud of it. I loved my books and kept them in pristine condition. I read them over and over, but I did not bend the pages or the spines. I treasured every single one. ~ Trevor Noah

As for genre, my adult books are usually filed under science fiction / fantasy, although some stores put them into romance, and few have stuck them into horror. I consider all my books a mix of steampunk and urban fantasy. ~ Gail Carriger

I have no feelings of guilt regarding the books I have not read and perhaps will never read; I know that my books have unlimited patience. They will wait for me till the end of my days. ~ Alberto Manguel

I am the son of a murdered woman - anybody who'd call my books misogynistic is, frankly, out of their fucking mind.
~ James Ellroy

I'm very lucky. I'm very fortunate that my books have never gone out of print - none of them. ~ Paula Danziger

The ideas for my books come about in two ways. There can be an intellectual idea that seems to be the reason for writing the book. The other motive is unconscious. There is something deeply psychological and emotional that draws me to the material in the first place. ~ Jeffrey Eugenides

One thing you can't intend is how you will be read. I hear it said a lot that my books are about the 'search for identity', and this is said admiringly, as if I meant to encourage such a search. ~ Zadie Smith

I'm really interested in the extraordinary found in the normal. Hopefully, my books don't take you to an entirely different place but make you look at things around you. ~ Mark Haddon

I remember that I stood on the library steps holding my books and looking for a minute at the soft hinted green in the branches against the sky and wishing, as I always did, that I could walk home across the sky instead of through the village. ~ Shirley Jackson

In any of my pages in any of my books may life a perfect account of my secret experience of the world. ~ Alberto Manguel

If my books can help children become readers, then I feel I have accomplished something important. ~ Roald Dahl

What would have become of me if no one had wanted to read my books? And don't forget all those who have written of me. ~ Selma Lagerlof

A novel can educate to some extent, but first a novel has to entertain. That's the contract with the reader: you give me ten hours and I'll give you a reason to turn every page. I have a commitment to accessibility. I believe in plot. I want an English professor to understand the symbolism while at the same time I want the people I grew up with - who may not often read anything but the Sears catalog - to read my books. ~ Barbara Kingsolver

I can remember one occasion, taking a shower with my wife while high, in which I had an idea on the origins and invalidities of racism in terms of Gaussian distribution curves. It was a point obvious in a way, but rarely talked about. I drew curves in soap on the shower wall, and went to write the idea down. One idea led to another, and at the end of about an hour of extremely hard work I had found I had written eleven short essays on a wide range of social, political, philosophical, and human biological topics. . . . I have used them in university commencement addresses, public lectures, and in my books. ~ Carl Sagan

Throughout my career I've struggled to encourage people to read my books on a more metaphorical level. I'm less attached to my settings than, for example, Saul Bellow. The setting of a novel for me is just a part of the technique. I choose it at the end. ~ Kazuo Ishiguro

I take my books everywhere. Plane journeys are a good opportunity to study, or also when I'm having my hair done. ~ Lily Cole

I want to board a train, and leave my books behind. I want to be so caught up in writing about the journey, that I forget that fiction & fact are not the same. The destination does not signify. ~ Hannah Harding

They like my books better in England than in France; a translation would be very successful there. ~ Marcel Proust

You have very accurately described the difficulty of presenting my books on film: many of my characters are alone most of the time, and when they do talk, what they say is mostly lies. That can make for a pretty confusing film. ~ Thomas Perry

Books, books, books! I had found the secret of a garret room Piled high with cases in my father's name; Piled high, packed large,
where, creeping in and out Among the giant fossils of my past, Like some small nimble mouse between the ribs Of a mastodon, I nibbled here and there At this or that box, pulling through the gap, In heats of terror, haste, victorious joy, The first book first. And how I felt it beat Under my pillow, in the morning's dark, An hour before the sun would let me read! My books! ~ Elizabeth Barrett Browning

My books are water; those of the great geniuses are wine - everybody drinks water. ~ Marilyn French

I think my books give people a language to have a conversation about God that's not religious. There isn't enough new literature that brings the conversation of God into a modern context. I love the Bible, but in the West we've analyzed it until it fits into a structure of control. We need more new stories. We need different ways of looking at things, and I think it's coming. ~ William P. Young

When I was young and the empire was beginning to disintegrate, the idea was absolutely unbelievable, particularly to children who'd been taught that the sun never set ... that's what all my books are about, the end of empire. ~ Jane Gardam

There are no makeovers in my books. The ugly duckling does not become a beautiful swan. She becomes a confident duck able to take charge of her own life and problems. ~ Maeve Binchy

Christmas poem to a man in jail
hello Bill Abbott:
I appreciate your passing around my books in
jail there, my poems and stories.
if I can lighten the load for some of those guys with
my books, fine.
but literature, you know, is difficult for the
average man to assimilate (and for the unaverage man too);
I don't like most poetry, for example,
so I write mine the way I like to read it. ~ Charles Bukowski

An early editor characterized my books as 'romantic comedy for intelligent adults.' I think people see them as funny but kind. I don't set out to write either funny or kind, but it's a voice they like, quirky like me ... And you know, people like happy endings. ~ Elinor Lipman

I don't set out to transmit a message. I don't write with a political point of view. There are no religious overtones. Looking back at my books, I can say, 'Oh, yes, it is there.' But it's not in my mind when I write. ~ Lois Lowry

Ιη m¥ books, l'm †ђ3 best; I just need some time тσ prove it ιη ¥øûЯ history books. ~ Ufuoma Apoki

I've done some research for my books and talked to a few humans, and they all said humans would use guns and knives and clubs for weapons." The Crow nodded. "A screaming woman with a teakettle just doesn't sound sufficiently dangerous." "But she was! They were!" Alan said. "How would a human deal with them? ~ Anne Bishop

Bantam has an incredible team working on my books, and I'm so thrilled that the art department is so amazing, since those covers are the 'face' of my stories! ~ Julie Kenner

I write because I know I am only one to control the world I created in my books. ~ Anamika Mishra

Maybe that was the dragon part of me coming out, but the thought of being homeless didn't scare me as much as losing one of my books. ~ Jamie K. Schmidt

Break the spine of one of my books and I break yours. ~ Mia James

My books are all fantastically sentimental. ~ Chuck Palahniuk

I ran the Iditarod twice. I finished once. I came in 42nd or 43rd place out of 70 plus teams the first time, and I scratched 80 miles from Nome the second time. You can read about my experience in the race in my books 'Woodsong' and 'Winterdance.' ~ Gary Paulsen

Often the true hero and heroines of my books are the houses, the places, the communities where people find a home. ~ Jackie French

No, no. It's not your fault. Books, books, I need my books. Have you re-read those books yet, by the way? - Jerry ~ Seinfeld

But then it came time for me to make my journey - into America. [ ... N]o coincidence that my first novel is called Americana. That became my subject, the subject that shaped my work. When I get a French translation of one of my books that says 'translated from the American', I think, 'Yes, that's exactly right. ~ Don DeLillo

I always try to create conflict and drama in my books; it's the engine of the novel. ~ Monica Ali

I think two different people can read one of my books and come away with completely different opinions on the subject. I hope they just read from the beginning to the end and be made to think about the subject. Then they can come to their own conclusions. ~ Eric Schlosser

My books standing there on the shelf do not know that I have written them. ~ Jorge Luis Borges

I do have shout-outs to bands and musicians I like in my books, but the musical references can be misunderstood. Often, I have people listening to music that I would never listen to personally, because it fits and defines their character. ~ George Pelecanos

Readers," continued Miss Winter, "are fools. They believe all writing is autobiographical. And so it is, but not in the way they think. The writer's life needs time to rot away before it can be used to nourish a work of fiction. It must be allowed to decay. That's why I couldn't have journalists and biographers rummaging around in my past, retrieving bits and pieces of it, preserving it in their words. To write my books, I needed my past left in peace, for time to do its work. ~ Diane Setterfield

Wrong?
So you are saying, I'm wrong okay then... It's not possible every time to be right, one moment you should be wrong in luck happens this and everywhere...
But why?? Where?? And Prove!
Under why
- why do you think, I'm wrong?
- Where? Is it in one of my books which I have written, is it by books which I have read?? - reviewed, rated, is it by the stuff I have said and made... Please tell the topic!
- Prove, everything to go well as far as possible you should give a prove something which confirms your answer! ~ Deyth Banger

Even so, my spirits heightened whenever I felt in my pocket the key to this apartment; with all its gloom, it still was a place of my own, the first, and my books were there, and jars of pencils to sharpen, everything I needed, so I felt, to become the writer I wanted to be. ~ Truman Capote

I'm floating between multiple media. I really wish you could buy the hardcover book and it would come with the digital download and audible version. I spend stupid amounts of money because I'm usually buying my books in at least two formats. ~ Atul Gawande

I do have food in my books. Different people eat different ways. ~ Mona Simpson