Claire Tomalin Quotes

People do write books.

Basically, I think of fiction and non-fiction as different ways of engaging with the world. You reach a point where you feel you have said all you possibly can, in reportage or a review essay or a reflection on history, which 'From the Ruins of Empire' was.

I shall be but a shrimp of an author.

Newt Gingrich wrote a novel, and he's a short story. Bill Clinton wrote a biography, and he's a novel.

I'm an avid biography reader.

I've never had any interest at all in being a journalist or writing some sort of historically accurate autobiography.

What I like about non-fiction is that it covers such a huge territory. The best non-fiction is also creative.

I have more than 100 legal pads filled with handwriting. Eight novels, two books for children, countless stories and essays.

I have some very good friends who've written memoirs, but it's not for me. It's just not a format that I'm interested in.

Those who have been writing literature have not been writing life.

Writing is my number one passion. I've written two novels. I've written a screenplay. I also write short stories and poetry.

I'm writing books. They're still a mix of fact and fiction and will continue to be. I think it's an interesting place to work.

I’m frequently asked why I don’t write my memoirs. I think I have.

Write," he said. "I'll write to you as soon as I get there," answered Julian. "No. Not to me. Write books. Not letters. Write them for me, for Penelope.

I'm a writer, not a genre.

When I was in college, I used to write little ditties and short stories and poetry for my friends. Writing a book is another thing. It is so much different from my traditional day of dirty fingernails and greasy hair and hot pans.

I always just wanted to be a writer, not necessarily a particular kind of writer.

I'm a biographer; I can live with a little hyperbole.

I think I would like to write screenplays, books, really anything.

I thought writing about somebody current would be a little closer to what I'm used to doing.

I wrote a lot when I was younger, though never anything like plays or scripts.

Biography is a very definite region bounded on the north by history, on the south by fiction, on the east by obituary, and on the west by tedium

I don't believe that my first name is Leo or that my last name is Tolstoy. I'm a storyteller.

I'm an author. And writers write books. And writing books is a full-time career.

I like people like Andre Malraux, Edmund Wilson, Willa Cather, Robert Graves, Erik Erikson, and Francis Steegmuller.