Eric Carle Quotes

I found some time ago that I have to be careful, while working on a novel, what I read.

My writing process often begins with a question. I write down ideas and let them stew for about a year. Then, when I sit down to write, I make a list of characters and try to see how they fit.

There's a lot of ignorance about how long it takes to write a novel. There's a lot of ignorance about how long a novel is in your head before you start to write it.

There are many challenges I face while working on a book. Working within deadlines and schedules is certainly one of the bigger ones for me. I want to create the best possible book I can for my readers with words and pictures - and that takes time to get it just right.

I must write the book out in my head now, before I sit down.

Novelists do not write as birds sing, by the push of nature. It is part of the job that there should be much routine and some daily stuff on the level of carpentry.

A novel is a big thing. It's difficult to hold the whole story in your mind, especially when you've finished a first draft and are still giddy from the flow of creative juices.

Actually, I enjoy the process of writing a big long novel.

A novel is often a longer process in handling self-doubt.

When I write a book, I write very cleanly from page one to the last page. I hardly ever write out of sequence.

I start with an idea that is no more than a paragraph long, and expand it slowly into an outline. But I'm always surprised by the directions things take when I actually start writing.

Having reached the halfway mark in the alphabet, my prime focus is on writing each new book as well as I can.

I usually start writing a novel that I then abandon. When I say abandon, I don't think any writer ever abandons anything that they regard as even a half-good sentence. So you recycle. I mean, I can hang on to a sentence for several years and then put it into a book that's completely different from the one it started in.

Each book has been different and has been challenging in its own way to write.

When I write a book, I'm making it the best book I can.

Actually, after while, finding the ideas is the easy part. Sorting them through and turning them into stories, now, that's the hard work.

I'm not the most prolific writer in the world, and, sadly, writing a novel involves a lot of effort.

I can get really obsessive. I like writing many drafts, and I try not to because it is very time-consuming, especially when you're working on a novel. But I do like to take a story and reorder it, put things in different places. This allows me to see things in a new and sometimes surprising way.

A novel is like a sausage. You might like the final taste but you don't want to see how it was made.

It depends on the book and what else is going on during my life, but it usually takes me about six months to write and revise the first draft.

Oh you know, I've been writing a novel.

'One With You' was the hardest book I have ever written. I rewrote it three times.

I type most of my books for the first chapter or two - I use a manual typewriter for the first 50 pages or so - and then I move to the computer. It helps me keep the work lean so I don't end up spending 10 pages describing a leaf.

'Library of Souls' is longer than 'Hollow City' by a considerable margin, but this time I was on the right track from the beginning, so I never had to start over. It took about 15 months, all told.

Writing novels is sitting in a room by yourself for a year.