Joe R. Lansdale Quotes

I started in 1957 when I sold my first story to a magazine.

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

There is no magic in all the world like that magic when you sell your first bit of writing.

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.'

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

I had a few stories and longer pieces published, but my first proper novel came in 2003, called 'Dead I Well May Be.'

I wrote my first full book when I was fourteen, and that was 'Obernewtyn.' It was also the first book I had published. It was accepted by the first publisher I sent it to, and it was short listed for Children's Book of the Year in the older readers category in Australia.

I was twenty-seven when I began to write seriously, and after two years of rejections, my first book, 'The One in the Middle is the Green Kangaroo,' was accepted for publication.

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

I'd never written a novel before, and I wrote a novel, and that turned out OK.

In the summer of '80, Silhouette bought my first book.

I started blogging in 2006 when I had sold my first novel but it had not yet been published, in those anxious months in between while I learned the whole process.

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.

I was so flattered that someone wanted me to write a book, I said I would. It was published in 1969.

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

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

In the first year, 1988, I wrote and sold 3 novels.

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

I've been writing since I was about thirteen but didn't start a book until 2007. I spent four years writing a sci-fi novel before I wrote 'The Bone Season' at nineteen.

I'd never been published when I was young.

My first published book, 'Story of a Girl', was the fourth book I wrote.

'The Squickerwonkers' was the story I wrote when I was on 'The Hobbit.' And I brought it to Comic-Con and sold out a thousand copies I had printed.

I sold my first short story while I was home on maternity leave, then began working on novels. Since I was reading and enjoying romance novels at the time, the first two unpublished manuscripts I wrote were both romances. I sold my third novel, 'Call After Midnight,' to Harlequin Intrigue after submitting it unagented.

I think I made my first short fiction sale in 2005. I had been writing unsuccessfully before that.