Virginia Henley Quotes

When I was growing up the publishing world seemed so far away. When my mother wrote a book, she would look up the address of publishers on the backs of the books she owned and send off her manuscript.

How lucky am I? Quite often I speak at book festivals, and people ask me how I got published. There's people who have been working on a book for as long as ten years, and I feel like such a cow.

I wrote my first novel-length story when I was 14 but had no idea what to do with it. Brisbane was a long way from the publishing industry then. Nowhere's a long way from the publishing industry now.

I wrote my first book when I was in my late thirties.

I write slowly by hand. Publishing is effectively bankrupt for you unless you are Danielle Steele. It takes a year to write book and advances are going down or disappearing.

Jean Plaidy was the greatest influence on me.

I am hoping to work with writers publishing books for first time, since I of course remember what that experience is like. It's all a bit of a mystery for new authors who don't know what to expect.

I used to think that when I finished a book, I was finished with it. But it's like a wonderful Hydra. Every time a head disappears, more heads appear, so I will be writing for the rest of my life. The more books I write, the more books I find that I still have to write about. I use it like an inspiration, and that's wonderful.

I love historical romance, absolutely love it.

I really absolutely loved writing my first book.

My final historical romance came out December 2005. While I enjoyed writing medieval romances, I was also dying to write something with more edge.

When I write books, I've learned not to have any expectations that I'm going to change the world.

I didn't say I have to be a writer, but I did say that I needed to publish at least one book.

I know very well that one cannot become an author by just writing a book.

I wrote my first book when I was 15 years old. And my second book '1,2,3 Publish Me!' shows everyone how writing a book is done in just the three secret editing levels I discovered!

I am actually hoping to write a series of books! The Amazon was the first one I got finished and have managed to get published! I have plenty more ideas up my sleeve!

I never thought I would grow up writing a book.

Writing books isn't a drastic departure from writing for the stage.

'The Hummingbird's Daughter' took 20 years to write.

If you lift the romantic element out of my plots, you still have fully formed mysteries. In the same fashion, if you pull the mystery out of a historical romance, you are left with a perfectly satisfying story.

The only advice I can give to aspiring writers is to write the book that you would want to read, and hope other people agree.

I started writing books because I couldn't find the books I wanted to read on the shelf.

I would be honored if someone reads my books and it inspires them to write their own work.

I hope and pray that I'll be one of those fortunate people who have many, many books to write. I don't begrudge writing. I love the whole thing!

If you think about writing a book, or when I did, it seems daunting, but when I began writing, it just started flowing.