Rita Mae Brown Quotes

If you don't like my book, write your own. If you don't think you can write a novel, that ought to tell you something. If you think you can, do. No excuses. If you still don't like my novels, find a book you do like.

If you don't write the book, the book ain't gonna get written.

In writing and politicking, it's best not to think about it, just do it.

I'm not a cribber, or someone who criticises. People who criticise are not doers. I'm a doer.

How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.

If I don't like something that's going on in my life, I change it. And I don't sit and complain about it for a year.

For some men, nothing is Written unless they Write it.

I have met so many people who say they've got a book in them, but they've never written a word. To be a writer - this may seem trite, I realize - you have to actually write.

It behooves every man to remember that the work of the critic is of altogether secondary importance, and that, in the end, progress is accomplished by the man who does things.

I had an insanely long commute - New York to D.C. - when I worked at 'National Geographic.' I hate to waste time, so I spent my time by writing about my life on the premise that I might be able to pitch those as short essays to magazines. It wasn't until later that I realized that I was writing a book.

I showed people that it's not about guessing what people can do. It's about saying, 'Here, show me what you can do.'

For true success ask yourself these four questions: Why? Why not? Why not me? Why not now?

I'm ready to create.

The world isn't one way or another. Things can be changed very, very rapidly by someone with sufficient confidence, sufficient knowledge and sufficient authority.

I've lost track of the number of people who want to be writers but never actually write anything. Talking about writing, dreaming about writing, can be very fun, but it won't get a book written. You've got to write.

Infuse your life with action. Don't wait for it to happen. Make it happen. Make your own future. Make your own hope. Make your own love. And whatever your beliefs, honor your creator, not by passively waiting for grace to come down from upon high, but by doing what you can to make grace happen... yourself, right now, right down here on Earth.

We want to develop this can-do mentality.

You don't have to be one of those people that accepts things as they are. Every day, take responsibility for changing them right where you are.

Life is what you make of it. Don't make excuses - make it happen.

Take out another notebook, pick up another pen, and just write, just write, just write. In the middle of the world, make one positive step. In the center of chaos, make one definitive act. Just write. Say yes, stay alive, be awake. Just write. Just write. Just write.

If you want somethin', go get it. Period.

In a longish life as a professional writer, I have heard a thousand masterpieces talked out over bars, restaurant tables and love seats. I have never seen one of them in print. Books must be written, not talked.

The writer learns to write, in the last resort, only by writing. He must get words onto paper even if he is dissatisfied with them. A young writer must cross many psychological barriers to acquire confidence in his capacity to produce good work-especially his first full-length book-and he cannot do this by staring at a piece of blank paper, searching for the perfect sentence.

Know yourself and go in swinging.

If you don't see the book you want on the shelves, write it.