MaryJanice Davidson Quotes

I have high hopes for Renee Ballard's literary life, and it can't start out better than the top of 'USA TODAY''s best-seller list.

I had no idea I'd end up writing four books when I completed 'Mortal Engines.' I didn't even think it would find a publisher.

I got lucky, and the first book, 'The Black Echo,' got published.

I published 'Rules of Civility' while I was still working. It became a best seller. I was working on this book, and then I decided to retire.

After 'Click, Clack, Moo' was published, I was still practicing law and had no plans to make a career change.

I'm very lucky. I'm very fortunate that my books have never gone out of print - none of them.

When 'The Shadow of the Wind' became a success I had already been a working writer, I'd been through the ups and downs, I'd seen how it worked.

The bewildering success of my books continues to surprise me.

I feel lucky I didn't become that newspaper cartoonist I wanted to be because in the U.S. so many newspapers have suffered circulation declines, and some have folded. What's fun about being an author is I reach a much bigger audience, and there is something special about launching a book you've penned.

You have to go into rehab after doing a David Walliams book. David is such an important man; publishers rate him very, very highly, His books usually go straight to the bestseller number one spot on the day of publication. He is a hugely important writer as far as HarperCollins, his publishers, are concerned.

Every time I had a book come out, I'm like, 'Is it going to be number one?'

When you've written 10 books and have six on the New York Times best-seller list - and four have been No. 1 - I think you have a right to be a member of Congress.

I honestly thought I probably did sell 100 million books. That doesn't seem out of the ordinary to me.

I started writing 'The Lobster Kings' the day after I sold my first novel, 'Touch.'

I always grew up with the idea that in order to be a successful writer, I should have a book published.

Having my novels published is a dream come true.

My first novel was a critical success in a matter of weeks.

I was elated when I found out my first novel, 'Leaving Patrick,' about a woman who walks out on her husband, was going to be published.

I am the luckiest novelist in the world. I was a first-time novelist who wasn't awash in rejection slips, whose manuscript didn't disappear in slush piles. I have had a wonderful time.

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

In the first year, 1988, I wrote and sold 3 novels.

Anyway, several rewrites later, Del Rey Books did publish my first novel, and it did become the first work of fiction on the New York Times trade paperback bestseller list.

My first book was an adult novel, 'Down Among the Gods,' published by Virago, and I've written poems as well, a slim volume of poetry.

You can't be admitted to the ranks of writers of importance unless you have sales.

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.