Geraldine McCaughrean Quotes

Once I decided to write, to be published, I knew it would happen.

I don't want to be famous per se, but I want to write books for as long as I can. And I plan on writing a lot.

I earned my writing stripes with a large man's shoebox overflowing with rejection slips... more than 100 before I got my first, 'Yes, we want this,' accompanied by a check.

It took seven years from the day I decided I wanted to write fiction to actually getting a book published.

I started submitting stories for publication when I was about 15, but it was many years before I sold anything. I don't make my living writing science fiction, so in that sense, I'm still not a pro.

I know very well that one cannot become an author by just writing a book.

I never set out to be a published writer.

I always assumed I could never make a living out of literary fiction, and I was right. When I did try, it took four years before being published.

A fortunate author can write maybe twelve novels in his lifetime.

When I settled to writing seriously, which would be in my 30s, I did expect to be published eventually, but my aspirations weren't very high. A published book and a few appreciative readers was my idea of heaven.

When 'The Shadow of the Wind' became a success I had already been a working writer, I'd been through the ups and downs, I'd seen how it worked.

My days are filled with writing, reading, and being a mom. Some days, I get to visit schools around the country and talk about what it's like to be a writer. I often feel like I'm pretending, because it's still hard for me to believe it when I see someone holding a book that I've written.

The Fiction Writer's Co-op has 51 members, from celebrated NYT bestsellers to promising newcomers, and a waiting list.

I had been a student in Vienna, and one of the neat little things I had found out was about that zoo. It was a good debut novel for me to have published. I was 26 or 27 when it was published. I already had a kid and would soon have a second.

I never imagined when I began writing in the early 1960s I'd become professional and my life would be transformed.

I had no idea I'd end up writing four books when I completed 'Mortal Engines.' I didn't even think it would find a publisher.

My literary career kicked off in 1956 when, as a resident of Swansea, South Wales, I published my first novel, 'Lucky Jim.'

When I was publishing my first books, the previous generation of authors was fading away, so I was welcomed because I was a new author.

Writers tell stories better, because they've had more practice, but everyone has a book in them. Yes, that old cliche.

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

I think writing is such a great talent, and if I was better, I would love to be a writer.

I didn't go to graduate school, where all the important writers seemed to be getting their start. I didn't pursue getting published in literary magazines. I didn't even send out countless pitch letters and manuscripts to agents.

I finished my first novel - it was around 300 pages long - when I was 16. Wrote one more before I got out of high school, then wrote the first Lincoln Perry novel when I was 19. It didn't sell, but I liked the character and I knew the world so I tried what was, in my mind, a sequel. Wrote that when I was 20, and that one made it.

In college, I had a lot of friends who were writers and wanted to be writers and I felt intimidated by it. I just didn't know if I had any gift or voice and I had no confidence about it.

By 17, I was submitting to publications and collecting my first rejection slips.