Mordicai Gerstein Quotes

I was very fortunate that my first novel captivated the imaginations of so many readers who asked for a sequel. After that, one book led to another as I discovered other facets to my characters I wanted to investigate further.

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.

I'm not sure if I always wanted to be a writer, but I was always writing.

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

It's that drama that drives authors, you know.

I did a minor in creative writing in college, but I didn't start writing until I stayed at home with my own children.

When I decided I wanted to become an author, I never thought something I wrote would be used as a way to start conversations that are otherwise difficult to begin.

Writing never comes easy. The difference between Page 2 and Page Nothing is the difference between life and death.

I didn't really start to write until I was almost 30, and I started with the short stories.

In a way, I started 'Goon Squad' not even realizing I was writing a book. I thought I was just writing a few stories to stall before starting this other book that I wanted to write - or thought I wanted to write: I still haven't written it.

I don't know if I want to be a writer.

Good scripts, which are apt for me, eventually come to me.

Until a book starts forming in your head, you always wonder, 'Am I going to be able to do this again?'

There is pressure when you have a very big book like 'Shadow Divers' to follow up with something big. But you can't let that pressure determine what you do. You just look for the best stories, and when you find a great one, you tell it.

When I went to college I took a creative writing class and decided in a week to be a writer.

When I'm the one who sits down and looks at the blank page and writes it out all the way, then I'll call it my script.

And there are people who want to be writers because they love to write. And they care.

I knew that I wanted to be a writer even before I knew exactly what being a writer entailed.

I always knew I wanted to be a writer.

I feel like writing a book there's always a version in your head that's an amazing version, but then you write the version that you can write.

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

I didn't know anything about writers. It never occurred to me they were regular people and that I could grow up to become one, even though I loved to make up stories inside my head.

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.

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.

Mine is not a story to tell struggling writers.