Michael Korda Quotes

I think I've always been ambitious. It just looks different on me. You know, I have friends who are actresses who go to every party they possibly can to be photographed and really try to make every connection they can, and I admire that and sometimes I wish I had a little bit more of that. Sometimes I feel like I don't have enough ambition.

Publishing is a business of relationships. The relationships you make at one house can carry over to another.

Because most writers have totally unrealistic concepts of how publishing works.

Try to meet as many authors, agents, and editors as you can.

I'm just trying to get an exposure and make my day.

The most important thing is to recognize how important it is to market yourself and make connections.

At the beginning of my career before anything started propelling, I used to blow up everybody. I was trying to work with whoever got next.

My career is there for everyone to see and delve into.

Having a literary agent makes a huge difference in submitting work. My agent has access and tremendous passion.

To practice - write each and every day if possible - then try to attend professional writer's conferences where you can learn your craft, get to know fellow writers, and meet editors and agents.

If my career isn't going that well, I'd rather it flounder than desperately trying to show up on red carpets: 'I'm for hire! Remember me!'

The best source for finding an agent is called Literary Agents of North America. It's a complete list of agents, not only by name and address, but by type of book they represent and by what their submission criteria are.

It's because of 'ER' that I've gotten the opportunity to get the work.

If you haven't taken a writing class, take a writing class. I took every class that was available in my area. I went to conferences inside and outside my area to network with people. That's how I got my agent. I found my agent through another agent who was at a conference.

Many people, not just Asians, are more concerned with hustling and getting to meetings with contacts to gain success.

It's funny: I've been very successful and done a lot of films, and I don't really have an agent - I don't really pursue jobs, I let people come to me.

In reality, throughout your career, you have to make yourself interesting enough for people to be waiting to see your films. In my case, people are longing to see what I come out with next. That's my success.

Somewhere along the line, I realized that I liked telling stories, and I decided that I would try writing. Ten years later, I finally got a book published. It was hard. I had no skills. I knew nothing about the business of getting published. So I had to keep working at it.

There's a fast-track if you can do the networking. For some personalities it works, but for mine it doesn't.

I'm the worst person to ask about how to get noticed. It took me 25 years.

One of the first things that I did was, I got myself a publicist as soon as 'Maria Full of Grace' premiered in July, so that I could go and meet people that I wanted to meet: the writers and the directors and the people that are doing things.

You should be accumulating really great relationships throughout your career.

I think the more avenues that open up when people want to publish, the better. Some of the authors that want to jump ship from the traditional houses and go on their own, you know what? Good luck. It's going to be a lot tougher than you think.

I don't find it very helpful to know who else is going up for stuff, generally.

Publishing is not my world.