Arthur Slade Quotes

It's not as if I've been unlucky. My books have been published and reviewed. I haven't lived through terrible literary suffering!

I've always been very grateful that enough people have enjoyed reading what I've written that I've been able to pursue writing professionally.

I think my first story sold for $550. This was in 1954, and it seemed like quite a lot of money, and I said to myself, 'Hey, I'm a professional writer now.'

People often call 'If I Stay' my baby novel, and I have to correct them. It's not my first book. It's just the first one anybody paid attention to.

If I end up having a novel that sells really well and that allows me to pay for health insurance and mortgage without having to work at a day job, that would be great.

After 20 years, a million written words, and nine rejected novels, I finally landed a book contract.

I don't have a boss. Well, I have a boss: the public. If the public doesn't buy my books, I would be out of a job.

After seven years of writing - and working many jobs to support my family - I finally got published.

My first book, 'The Age of Wire and String,' came out in 1995, and it was hardly reviewed at all.

The story wrote quickly. I called it 'Where You're From,' and I sent it out, as I had numerous other stories over the years. Except this time I got a letter back saying that it would be published. Someone out there had liked the story. I was thirty-one years old.

My books have occasionally been of mixed success. It's not like I have gone from triumph to triumph. I have had a couple of books do very, very well and a couple do very, very badly.

I didn't make 'The New York Times' bestseller list until 'Charmed Thirds,' and then again for 'Fourth Comings.' It gave me a certain validation, and it certainly helps position me for future books, but it's not something I think about on a daily basis.

I've never done work for money ever. If your choices are based on grosses and the film doesn't do well, what does that mean? It leaves you with nothing.

I sold my very first novel when I was 24 or 25 years old.

I assumed 'Freak the Mighty' was probably too weird and melodramatic to find a publisher. I certainly never expected the book to have a profound influence on my career as a writer, but indeed it has.

It's fun being paid to read stuff and air your opinion about it - pretty much a dream job for a writer.

My dream was to be known as a writer and to be able to produce at least one book that would be read by people. That dream came true with the publication of my first novel - and all the rest has been a sweet bonus.

I am proudest of that first novel, 'Trust,' of anything I have written. I don't think I've had such intense energy since.

Publication in 'The New Yorker' meant everything, and it's no exaggeration to say that it changed my life.

My second book, Follow Me Down had some success, got good critical notices, went into a second printing and things like that, but Shiloh was by far the most successful of those first five novels.

I left my job as a feature writer on a newspaper to write a book, then sent it off to a number of agents thinking they would all reject me. Within a week, most had come back to say they loved what they had read, which then led to a bidding war for my first two novels.

I had always presumed that my first book would be published, but I never dreamt that I would write 15 bestsellers and have this wonderful life in America that I have entirely built for myself.

In the case of 'Goon Squad,' which sold slowly for a long time despite the good reviews, those 'best of 2010' lists were pivotal, and made the book really sell.

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

I've never chased the dollar, I've always chased the reader's heart. I love having more readers. The more people who read it, the more thrilled I am.