Victor Hugo Quotes

When you publish a book, it's the world's book. The world edits it.

Writers are really people who write books not because they are poor, but because they are dissatisfied with the books which they could buy but do not like.

If you don't see the book you want on the shelves, write it.

If you want to read a perfect book there is only one way: write it.

When a man publishes a book, there are so many stupid things said that he declares he'll never do it again. The praise is almost always worse than the criticism.

Readers, not critics, are the people who determine a book's eventual fate.

If I'm a lousy writer, then an awful lot of people have lousy taste.

What with the reviews of critics, the sarcasms of one's friends, the reproaches of one's own taste, there's precious little peace after publishing a book.

My books don't seem to belong to me after I have once written them; and I find myself delivering opinions about them as if I had nothing to do with them.

The way to write a book is to actually write a book. A pen is useful, typing is also good. Keep putting words on the page.

It is the fate of most men who mingle with the world, and attain even the prime of life, to make many real friends, and lose them in the course of nature. It is the fate of all authors or chroniclers to create imaginary friends, and lose them in the course of art. Nor is this the full extent of their misfortunes; for they are required to furnish an account of them besides.

A novel seemed the easiest way to get what I had had in my head into the inside of other people's heads. Books are good that way.

Like all former thinkers, I'm writing a book.

When you get the ideas, that's a thrill; when you're writing the book and it's corning out well, that's a thrill; when you finish it and other people read it, that's a thrill. There are going to be reviews, of course; not everyone's going to love it. You feel sort of naked and vulnerable in a way. That's just a minor part of the process, really. If you can't take that part, you shouldn't be in the business. But there are so many joys to writing.

The only people who can be excused for letting a bad book loose on the world are the poor devils who have to write for a living.

No man should ever publish a book until he has first read it to a woman.

Write your goddamned book now. The world awaits.

Books are an attempt to control something that's uncontrollable.

I thought, if I write a book that is not a retelling of Pride and Prejudice, it's not going to mean that I will not get any criticism. I might as well write the book that I want to write.

As by some might be saide of me: that here I have but gathered a nosegay of strange floures, and have put nothing of mine unto it, but the thred to binde them. Certes, I have given unto publike opinion, that these borrowed ornaments accompany me; but I meane not they should cover or hide me.

A book comes and says, 'Write me.

The only way to write a book, I’m fond of telling people, is to actually write a book. That’s how you write a book.

Writing a book is a brilliant thing because once you've finished it, you've done it, and there's the potential for it to go on earning you a living without you doing any more work on it. It's absolutely ideal for an idler.

No book or poem is ever finished, merely abandoned.

Writing a book is the most terrifying thing that I've ever done. It's so much harder than writing for television because it is a completely different skill set.