Julian Barnes Quotes

I sold my very first novel when I was 24 or 25 years old.

I started writing when I was twenty, and my first book came out seventeen years later.

I started writing when I was twenty. My first book came out when I was thirty-five. But I never expected that it would happen quickly.

My literary career kicked off in 1956 when, as a resident of Swansea, South Wales, I published my first novel, 'Lucky Jim.'

I had a few stories and longer pieces published, but my first proper novel came in 2003, called 'Dead I Well May Be.'

I completed my first novel when I was 19 years old.

I always wanted to be a writer... 'Critical Care' was my first published work. I was 34 when it came out. I was accumulating 'Critical Care' for years. I would go for a whole year and not touch it. And then I'd go back to it.

Selling a book or story has never become absolutely automatic for me.

I was a prodigy who learned how difficult writing was only after getting published. I paid my dues later.

I was twenty-seven when I began to write seriously, and after two years of rejections, my first book, 'The One in the Middle is the Green Kangaroo,' was accepted for publication.

I started writing 'The Lobster Kings' the day after I sold my first novel, 'Touch.'

Writing a book is like an unknown abyss, every time. Every book is different. Contrary to what unpublished writers think, it's horrible to have a book out.

My first published novel, 'American Rust,' took three and a half years of full-time work to write. But I wrote two apprentice novels before that.

I'd never been published when I was young.

I've had over a dozen and a half novels published since late 1994 when my first novel, 'Brother to Dragons, Companion to Owls' came out.

My first published book, 'Story of a Girl', was the fourth book I wrote.

'The Blade Itself' was my first book. Probably I should've tried a few short stories first, but for some reason I decided to begin with Everest.

I wrote my first novel, 'Deadline,' in 1994 as an experiment.

Balancing an illustrator and author can be tricky, but I was an illustrator mostly before I wrote my books.

You're too busy writing the next book to worry about Googling yourself all the time.

I remember the days of sitting at book signings, playing with my pen when no one would come, and still I even then thought I was living the dream, because I had a book out.

I never expected to write a book about a slum in Ireland that was going to catapult me, as they say, into some kind of - onto the best seller list.

Putting out a book is absolutely a lesson in vulnerability because it doesn't matter how much of an audience you have. Some people who have giant audiences can't sell books because those audiences don't feel like they need to give them their money.

'Brown Girl Dreaming' was a book I had a lot of doubts about - mainly, would this story be meaningful to anyone besides me? My editor, Nancy Paulsen, kept assuring me, but there were moments when I was in a really sad place with the story for so many reasons. It wasn't an easy book to write - emotionally, physically, or creatively.

It took seventeen years to get from my second novel, 'Truck,' to my third, 'Geek Love.'