Jeff Jarrett Quotes

For 20 years, Simon & Schuster asked me, 'Why don't you write your autobiography?'

If I could wave a magic wand and be anything, I'd be a really respected, really successful author. That's a hard combination to get, though. I really enjoy acting, and it's easier, frankly.

Whenever anyone calls me 'The new J..K. Rowling,' I think, 'What's wrong with the old one?'

To be publishing Stephen King, to be a friend to Stephen, when he is absolutely what got me into this business, is a really neat thing and something I don't take for granted.

Almost anyone can be an author; the business is to collect money and fame from this state of being.

I want to leave behind a literary legacy.

I don't want to be famous per se, but I want to write books for as long as I can. And I plan on writing a lot.

There are writers who go their whole lives and never hit that No. 1 spot.

I didn't write a book. It wasn't for self-enrichment.

After 20 years, a million written words, and nine rejected novels, I finally landed a book contract.

After seven years of writing - and working many jobs to support my family - I finally got published.

Even if you are a best-seller you feel insecure because it is all so unpredictable.

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

When I sold my first book, 'A Conspiracy of Tall Men,' it was part of a two-book deal. It wasn't hugely lucrative, but it was enough money for me to quit the paralegal job I had in San Francisco.

Writing is the hardest thing I know, but it was the only thing I wanted to do. I wrote for 20 years and published nothing before my first book.

I didn't make 'The New York Times' bestseller list until 'Charmed Thirds,' and then again for 'Fourth Comings.' It gave me a certain validation, and it certainly helps position me for future books, but it's not something I think about on a daily basis.

I actually own a copy of my own book; that's how dedicated I am as an author.

I'm realistic about my career as a novelist. I'm certainly not a superstar and far, far from a household name, but I feel successful.

Publication in 'The New Yorker' meant everything, and it's no exaggeration to say that it changed my life.

Some people get their books on the best-seller list and then they count the number of weeks, and I just never want to live that way.

I started submitting stories for publication when I was about 15, but it was many years before I sold anything. I don't make my living writing science fiction, so in that sense, I'm still not a pro.

Authors want their names down in history; I want to keep the smoke coming out of the chimney.

I had always presumed that my first book would be published, but I never dreamt that I would write 15 bestsellers and have this wonderful life in America that I have entirely built for myself.

I never thought I would become amazing. I never thought I would be as great as my father. I would like to continue writing novels, and hopefully, at some point, I would like to make the switch from being 'Stephen Hawking's daughter' to 'novelist Lucy Hawking,' and that will be a fabulous day.

I'm like a unicorn; I'm a midlist writer who hasn't done anything else but write. But because I wasn't amazingly famous, I didn't become Stephanie Meyer, or even a huge literary name like a Jonathan Franzen or a Joshua Ferris.