Mo Rocca Quotes

I'm one of those writers that have always worked on multiple things.

I love writing books - I really do. If I could just quit everything and work on a book every day, I would love that most.

With the novels, I try to write a few pages a day - it doesn't sound much, but it can be difficult if I'm not sure where the story is going.

I want to be a writer. I do not want to spend 40 hours a week handling e-mails, formatting covers, finding editors, etc.

Usually after finishing a novel, I have a head full of bad ideas for the next one.

Writing a book is a long and difficult process for me. I'm a slow writer, so I spend the year with Elvis Cole and Joe Pike in my head. I was thinking about this the other day. I wrote the first book in 1987. Literally every day since that time, Elvis and Joe have been in my head. They're always there. I started these guys because I like them.

Once I had all the facts in, I found I didn't have the immoral courage to pull the caper. So I wrote it as a story. As a teenager, I didn't have any skills for writing as such, so it came out in 1500 words.

Write a book you'd like to read. If you wouldn't read it, why would anybody else? Don't write for a perceived audience or market. It may well have vanished by the time your book's ready.

Listen, I wrote 10 unsuccessful books before I broke through, so I'm looking all the time to keep my books fascinating. I want to write what people want to read, not push any message.

Any writer worth the name is always getting into one thing or getting out of another thing.

After a while, you start to realize that you should write a book you would want to read. I try to write a book I would enjoy.

We don't have to think up a title till we get the doggone book written.

I always have a story in my head that needs to be written, or at least I think I do. But I usually can't find the time to write it.

The only other thing which I think is important is: Don't write a book or start a book with the expectation of communicating a message in a very important way.

I write about five thousand words a day, when working on a book, about three thousand a day if I'm writing a short story. I take long periods off between projects, when I read a lot, garden, and think about the next book or stories.

I like writing. I get cranky when I can't. Yes, I write books back to back, and I work very hard on them.

Having reached the halfway mark in the alphabet, my prime focus is on writing each new book as well as I can.

There's actually nothing interesting about me except what I write.

It's the same thing in a way, although writing a book is a very solitary thing.

I like all kinds of stories, and I usually work on several stories at once. When I run out of gas on one, I start work on the other.

I started writing, or rather, thinking, stories as a child, and at that time the reason was very clear.

Don't let anyone discourage you from writing. If you become a professional writer, there are plenty of editors, reviewers, critics, and book buyers to do that.

I'm always writing. There is always a story brewing in my head.

Novel writing is solitary work.

When you're writing a book, you don't really think about it critically. You don't want to know too well what you're doing. First, you write the book, then you find the justification for it.