Stephen King Quotes

Any good writer is going to be well-received and is going to not be well-received; that's how you know you're a great writer.

Celeste Ng is such a gifted writer.

Writers - all writers, even screenwriters - like to make their mark. I don't think many screenwriters can write. They pass as writers.

There are so many talented young writers named Jonathan, with whom by comparison I suffer terribly.

Let me tell you, if I could write one-tenth as fast as some of my friends, I'd be made. I'd be it. But instead I happen to be, in the tree of life of writers, down at the bottom, with the hematodes.

I cringe when critics say I'm a master of the popular novel. What's an unpopular novel?

One man is as good as another until he has written a book.

The great American novel has not only already been written, it has already been rejected.

I'm quite sure that most writers would sustain real poetry if they could, but it takes devotion and talent.

You can write the best book you can, and that might still not be enough. Appeal isn't something that most writers can't strive for or identify. It's something even the best agents and editors can't always identify.

I think the best actors are the most generous, the kindest, the greatest people and at their worst they are vain, greedy and insecure.

I believe if you write a great book, the chances are it'll get a great reception.

'Wild at Heart' created a set of expectations maybe, partly, on my part, certainly on my publisher's part, but also in the world out there, that my next books would be as remarkable.

Honestly, I feel pretty awed anytime I meet just about any writer. I get how hard it is to write and make a living from it, but there's also this almost magical force you need to tap into, and I'm amazed by anyone who can do it.

Hollywood called just as I crested thirty. My novels did not and still do not interest them, but my writing ability did.

No sensible author wants anything but praise.

The general public doesn't expect romance authors to be Harvard graduates. Which is funny, because there are actually quite a lot of us. But this disconnect means that journalists see me as an interesting story. The tricky part is making sure they understand that there are many, many talented writers who don't have 'fancy' educations.

Despite what you hear about the publishing industry being a fixed game that you can only get in if you know somebody, I'm here in person to tell you it ain't so. If your stuff is really any good, sooner or later some editor will take a chance on you.

Just because someone has stylistic limitations doesn't necessarily make them a worse writer.

The reason why so few good books are written is that so few people who can write know anything.

'Ancillary Sword' picked up the Locus and the BSFA, which surprised the heck out of me.

A. S. Byatt is a writer in mid-career whose time has certainly come, because 'Possession' is a tour de force that opens every narrative device of English fiction to inspection without, for a moment, ceasing to delight.

Oddly, for a book to do well merely because people like it is surprisingly rare.

My preference is for really good writing, and I just really don't care where it is.

I actually thought I wanted to be Thomas Wolfe, but I didn't have the talent. So I thought I could edit Thomas Wolfe.