Laurence Housman Quotes

I've written a lot of prose. I just haven't published it.

I think now I'm up to something like 85 different titles that I've published.

There comes a point when you can more or less count the number of books you're going to write before you die.

I really only have been seriously writing, finishing things and publishing things since January '91.

Success comes to a writer as a rule, so gradually that it is always something of a shock to him to look back and realize the heights to which he has climbed.

And I have finally realized that, you know, it's not a given that my lifespan will accommodate my writing aspirations. It could be that it would take me 12 more books at six years each to get it - which means I would have to live to be 126. Which I fully intend to do, of course.

For a dyed-in-the-wool author, nothing is as dead as a book once it is written. She is rather like a cat whose kittens have grown up.

In 1957, I decided: write or perish.

My mom was dying for me to write a book, she was my biggest advocate.

Originally I had planned to write just a couple of children's books and then, return the focus on adult literature. A funny thing happened along the way - I kept having new ideas, and then I looked up one day, and 30 years had passed!

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 did six series for the BBC and that was enough. I've been writing for ten years, which is more challenging artistically.

I feel lucky that my career so far has included books for adults and books for kids. They're equally important to me, and I hope I get to continue writing both.

I had been writing professionally since 1988.

As a youngster, I think I said I wanted to be a journalist, but that's a disguise for being a writer.

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

When I look back at my career as an author, I don't look at the first book that was ever published as to where my career began - I look to the first book that I ever wrote.

I will try to write books until I drop dead.

I wrote a great deal... but very little of any importance; there are not more than four of five papers which I can still remember with some satisfaction.

I am 55 years old now. It takes three years to write one book. I don't know how many books I will be able to write before I die. It is like a countdown. So with each book I am praying - please let me live until I am finished.

I've written a whole body of work that I'm incredibly proud of.

I always wanted to be a writer, from being a little kid onwards. My dad and my mum both had phases when that was what they did.

I've been writing full-time since 1978.

Literary generations come and go, and each generation passeth away and is heard of no more. In the end, simply the making itself - of poems and stories and essays - delivers the only reward a writer can be sure of. And, perhaps, the only one that matters.

If you think about becoming a writer, that's just really one of the big dreams I had. It's really important to have those dreams and pursue your passions.