Robert B. Parker Quotes

Five people read my work before its ready for publication, and I solicit opinions from all of them: my wife, my agent, my editor, and my parents.

Most writers want to share their essay or book much too quickly. Those who accept the pain of hard work and revising are those who get published.

I would say, number one, don't worry about getting published. Just write. Number two, just write. Three is make sure you read.

I've never actually even contemplated writing a book or having a book.

You don't sit up in a cave and write the Great American Novel and know it is utterly superb, and then throw it page by page into the fire. You just don't do that. You send it out. You have to send it out.

Don't talk about writing. Write. Don't show unfinished work to anyone. Don't show finished work to non-writers. Get your opinions, not from friends and family, but by sending your work out to editors. An endless stream of rejection slips means you need to learn more. So learn more.

Let your literary compositions be kept from the public eye for nine years at least.

Sometimes I write less than I'd like but do research. Other times, editor's notes or a copy-edited manuscript or page proofs for a forthcoming novel mean that I need to put my attentions elsewhere for a day or two, but I always come back to writing.

My wife is my in-home editor and reads everything I write.

Get your butt in a chair and write. If it comes out weak or bad or clunky or ordinary, then accept that this happens to everyone. Everyone. Get it down, get it done, and fix it in the rewrite. Just like everyone from Stephen King to J. K. Rowling to Chuck Palahniuk does.

I always write the script by myself.

I never really like it when other writers talk about coming in behind people and rewriting.

I read what I write over and over and make corrections and improvements, until I reach the conclusion that the material deserves to stand on its own.

I always wanted to be a writer... 'Critical Care' was my first published work. I was 34 when it came out. I was accumulating 'Critical Care' for years. I would go for a whole year and not touch it. And then I'd go back to it.

Read a ton. Take a workshop course so you learn to give and get criticism.

If you want to write, write it. That's the first rule. And send it in, and send it in to someone who can publish it or get it published. Don't send it to me. Don't show it to your spouse, or your significant other, or your parents, or somebody. They're not going to publish it.

I think with one exception I've never changed an opening sentence after a book was completed.

I've never shown anybody a draft of anything.

I don't think anybody submits their first story and sells right away.

When I'm my own editor, there's very little difference between the first draft and the final. I write what feels right to begin with. I rarely make any major changes.

Sit down and put down everything that comes into your head and then you're a writer. But an author is one who can judge his own stuff's worth, without pity, and destroy most of it.

The only people who usually have input on my writing are my wife and my editor. I'm not in conversation with anyone except the people I report on and the people I work with.

I think about the sentence a long time, and then I write it. I don't revise it once it's set down.

My secret weapon is my wife. She's the best judge. She's a scientist and a natural reader. We've developed a detailed code for how she marks a manuscript, and I think it's what saves me from wild digressions.

I often get asked how I write so much. As any writer knows, the answer is to write a lot more than you actually publish.