Dean Koontz Quotes

The best writing advice I had was [in] ‘Heinlein’s Rules for Writers’ by (American science fiction author) Robert A. Heinlein. His first rule is that you must write, and I was already doing that, but his second rule is, ‘You must finish what you write,’ and that had a big impact on me.

Maugham then offers the greatest advice anyone could give to a young author: "At the end of an interrogation sentence, place a question mark. You'd be surprised how effective it can be."

Stephen King's 'On Writing' is probably the most useful writing book I've ever read.

Young writers reasonably say, 'I don't know what to write about,' so writing about yourself is a very literal way to begin.

There were many times in my initial days as a writer when I had felt the need to talk to someone, to leverage on someone's experience, to learn from someone who had written and published a book.

Most people write the same sentence over and over again. The same number of words-say, 8-10, or 10-12. The same sentence structure. Try to become stretchy-if you generally write 8 words, throw a 20 word sentence in there, and a few three-word shorties. If you're generally a 20 word writer, make sure you throw in some threes, fivers and sevens, just to keep the reader from going crosseyed.

Don't take anyone's writing advice too seriously.

[Ernest ]Hemingway always said, "Write about what you know." I think you can do that, and if you want to write about what you don't know, you can. It just takes a lot more work.

The worst advice a young writer can get is "Write what you know." Imagination is more important than experience.

I took William Zinsser's advice that you write to yourself and you hope that there are people out there who are like you.

The road to hell is paved with adverbs.

Just start writing and you'll find what you want to say.

It is perfectly okay to write garbage – as long as you edit brilliantly.

What everybody is well advised to do is to not write about your own life, this is if you want to write fast. You will be writing about your own life anyway but you won't know it.

Best selling authors are always worth listening to, even if you choose to ignore their advice.

I've got a million people telling me why I can't do it. You know, that I'm not a real designer, that I'm not this. I'm not a real rapper, either!

I'm so used to people slagging me off. Since the beginning of my career I've been told I have no talent, I can't sing and I'm a one-hit wonder.

There were a lot of people on the other side of the field saying, 'Maybe he's doing this, not doing that.' It's good to bounce back the year after and put up some good numbers, so they know that you're a guy who works.

There are a lot of spikes that can happen when what you're doing starts to get attention or people start to talk about it. They can just kind of really do a number on your reasons for making music.

I'm not a writer. I haven't written anything.

When asked for advice by beginners. Know your ending, I say, or the river of your story may finally sink into the desert sands and never reach the sea.

All my novels are rooted in their time and in their place. The place of my novels is Israel, almost without exception. Almost without exception, my novels are rooted in Israel because that's the place I know well. And, that's my gutsy advice to any young writer: write only about what you know well. Don't write about that which you don't know.

I believe the road to hell is paved with adverbs, and I will shout it from the rooftops.

I can't stand it when people say, "If you're writing a novel, you should read this and that." Because it's like giving someone another person's prescription. How do you know that's what they need?

That's my gutsy advice to any young writer: write only about what you know well.