Wilbur Smith Quotes

Writers tell stories better, because they've had more practice, but everyone has a book in them. Yes, that old cliche.

Everyone thinks they've got a book inside them.

I think writing is such a great talent, and if I was better, I would love to be a writer.

Many, many people can write books. I just happen to be one of them.

If you give me a typewriter and I'm having a good day, I can write a scene that will astonish its readers. That will perhaps make them laugh, perhaps make them cry - that will have some emotional clout to it. It doesn't cost much to do that.

Everyone has a book inside of them - but it doesn't do any good until you pry it out.

A lot of people ask me, 'Are you born a writer?' And I don't think it's necessarily true. I just think what you either have or you don't is this ability to see something that's complex and worth talking about.

Good writing of course requires talent, and no one can teach you to have talent.

I am a writer because writing is the thing I do best.

You cannot teach creativity - how to become a good writer. But you can help a young writer discover within himself what kind of writer he would like to be.

Humans are very complex; I definitely have a new respect for authors that are able to write books nonstop. It's an incredible talent.

I've written many nonfiction books, but that's a special gift.

I tend to be a subscriber to the idea that you have everything you need by the time you're 12 years old to do interesting writing for most of the rest of your life - certainly by the time you're 18.

An author is somebody who writes a story. It doesn't matter if you're a kid or if you're a grown-up, it doesn't matter if the book gets published and lots of people get to read it, or if you make just one copy and you share that book with one friend.

I think very visually, and I just never thought I had a novel in me.

When I started writing fiction, I knew how good it was immediately.

I started to write in 2001. I wrote the books for the fun of it. It was an old idea I had had since the nineties.

Don't romanticise your 'vocation.' You can either write good sentences or you can't. There is no 'writer's lifestyle.' All that matters is what you leave on the page.

People say there's a book in everyone but I'm not sure there is. There might be a pamphlet in me.

I've been writing since I was really young.

For the years I spent working on it, 'Constellation' was the only novel I knew how to write, so maybe I still abided by the maxim? Regardless, I prefer the maxim: Write what you want to know, rather than what you already know.

I believe in my writing.

I've always been a writer.

And once I know what the first page is, then the rest will come.

I started writing while I was a little boy. Maybe it's because I was reading a lot of books I admired, and thought that I would like to write something like that someday. Also, my love for good writing pushed me.