Diana Gabaldon Quotes

I write every day. I'm always in the process of writing my last book, until the next one.

It is probably true that I would not have had as many children or mothers in my books without being a mother with children. It is definitely true that I would not have written about the Civil War without having a little guy who was obsessed with it.

Whenever I'm writing a book, small details from my life always creep in.

I wrote for 10 years before I even started the 'Percy Jackson' series.

We don't have to think up a title till we get the doggone book written.

My books start almost before I realise it. Once in a while, some accident causes an idea to rise to the surface and say: 'now.'

I write about five thousand words a day, when working on a book, about three thousand a day if I'm writing a short story. I take long periods off between projects, when I read a lot, garden, and think about the next book or stories.

I like writing. I get cranky when I can't. Yes, I write books back to back, and I work very hard on them.

I should tell you that many people think that authors just cut and paste from real life into books. It doesn't work quite that way.

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

Probably not needing to be published would give me more time to think about a book.

I get an urge, like a pregnant elephant, to go away and give birth to a book.

I used to think that when I finished a book, I was finished with it. But it's like a wonderful Hydra. Every time a head disappears, more heads appear, so I will be writing for the rest of my life. The more books I write, the more books I find that I still have to write about. I use it like an inspiration, and that's wonderful.

When you're writing a book, you don't really think about it critically. You don't want to know too well what you're doing. First, you write the book, then you find the justification for it.

There's not too much difference between writing a picture book and writing a collection of a hundred poems or so, except that the bigger books take a lot longer to do.

I'm remembering one book that I wrote, 'Fourth Grade Rats,' that took a month to write, but most of them, full-length novels, I would say about a year.

Some people take 10 years to write a book and some can do one in under a year.

All my books were easy to write - doesn't it show?

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

My favorite book is always the one I'm working on at the moment.

If I'm in a state about a book, I'll get up at 6 A.M. and write before breakfast, but usually I'll start afterwards and then work a full day with a break for lunch.

You write, hoping to write a good book; that's it.

I don't have goals when writing books, apart from getting to the end. I have rather vague ideas about how I want things to feel, I'm big on ambience. I have a title, a beginning and a probable ending and go from there.

I don't think many of us launched ourselves into the world of writing books fully formed.

Writing a book is very personal. It's a very personal relationship. A book will start with something as simple as two men talking about work. That gets the fire going. Sustaining that fire is the hard work. It takes attention and empathy to hone the characters.