Philippa Gregory Quotes

I really think that reading is just as important as writing when you're trying to be a writer because it's the only apprenticeship we have, it's the only way of learning how to write a story.

I loved to read, still do, and it seemed that the writing was a result of the love of books and reading and libraries.

Being a librarian certainly helped me with my writing because it made me even more of a reader, and I was always an enthusiastic reader. Writing and reading seem to me to be different aspects of a single imaginative act.

There isn't an aspect of book creation I don't enjoy, and there has always been a book in my life to dream about or work on.

Read as much as you can, and then sit down and write.

Read a lot. Read broadly... Tell stories to your friends, and pay attention to when they get bored... Write a lot.

I grew up around books. When I first held the book and it was a substantive, tangible thing, and I thought of all the work that went into it, not just my work but everybody else's and the research and so forth, there's a sense of really have done something worthwhile.

Only a reader can become a writer. Develop a lively intellect and the ability to become interested in anything, no matter how mundane it might seem at first. Look for the story. Develop an eye for detail. Feed your mind and your brain: learn as much as you can about everything you can.

Reading is No. 1 - I have to read, or I can't write.

I think writing and reading are completely synergistic; not necessarily in that one has to be a good reader to be a good writer or vice versa, but that they so inform each other.

I think I'm too lazy a writer to do something like historical fiction. You have to do so much research. I just write what I know.

For me, writing historical fiction is all about finding a balance between reading, traveling, looking, imagining, and dreaming.

Cram your head with characters and stories. Abuse your library privileges. Never stop looking at the world, and never stop reading to find out what sense other people have made of it. If people give you a hard time and tell you to get your nose out of a book, tell them you're working. Tell them it's research. Tell them to pipe down and leave you alone.

Occasionally it does hit me, the words on a page. And I still love doing that, as I have for the last 60 years.

When you're writing fiction or poetry... it really comes down to this: indifference to everything except what you're doing... A young writer could do worse than follow the advice given in those lines.

I like writing books. I really love words. I love to read.

I love it when people want to interpret my books.

I love writing. It's one of my favorite jobs. Of the things I get to do, I love sitting in a room and coming up with ideas, and I love going home and pounding them out.

The greatest part of a writer's time is spent in reading in order to write. A man will turn over half a library to make a book.

I learnt to love reading. And then I started scribbling stories, and I liked that even more.

I write 'by the seat of my pants.' I love to do research. I am inspired by contemporary writers and contemporary events. I live in the real world.

I wanted to become a writer. I enjoyed reading as a child.

I love sitting at my desk and facing a quiet day with a pen in my hand, and putting myself into a story. It's kind of weird, isn't it? I mean, to absent myself from real life and make up stories is strange, but I started doing this when I was ten years old. It was all I wanted to do.

Live life and write about life. Of the making of many books there is indeed no end, but there are more than enough books about books.

Writing is something that I've always loved. That stems from my love of being a reader.