Literary Milestone Quotes

There's still, even now, a part of me that can't believe that I got published. That part of me has never gone away.

To this day, 'The Duke and I' remains particularly close to my heart; I felt it was the novel in which my writing took a huge leap forward.

The first story I ever sold was to 'Argosy' magazine, which no longer exists. That issue also contained work by several other more celebrated writers, like Ray Bradbury - so I felt I had at least one toe on the ladder.

I sold my first story when I was 21 in 1973.

This book, 'Stupid White Men,' has sold now over four million copies worldwide. Probably about half of that may be in the U.S. and Canada, and the rest, overseas.

Every time one of my books sells a million copies in paperback, Pan Macmillan gives me a gold statuette of Pan. I have about 20 of them.

With 'Machine of Death,' we became the #1 bestselling book on Amazon in a single day.

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

After 20 years, a million written words, and nine rejected novels, I finally landed a book contract.

It took seventeen years to get from my second novel, 'Truck,' to my third, 'Geek Love.'

After 30 novels, release day is still a thrill. It's always a little bittersweet, too.

I think my first story sold for $550. This was in 1954, and it seemed like quite a lot of money, and I said to myself, 'Hey, I'm a professional writer now.'

Winning the Pulitzer is wonderful and it's an honor and I feel so humbled and so grateful, but I think that I'll think of it very much as the final sort of final moment for this book and put it behind me along with the rest of the book, as I write more books.

'Slow Heat in Heaven' was my 'breakout' or 'crossover' book, and I loved the freedom I felt writing it.

'Lady Chatterley's Lover' is a novel that constitutes a milestone of English literature.

When I got my very first phone call that I'd hit the 'New York Times' list, I had a small rush of 'I've made it!' But the next morning, it occurred to me I didn't know what it was, so I called my agent and asked what being a 'New York Times' bestselling author really meant. He informed me that I was now a thousand pound gorilla.

In the summer of '80, Silhouette bought my first book.

It was more exciting to get that first book published, I think.

My daughter Karen was born in 1958, the year my first Paddington book came out, so she grew up with him.

If I can hit No. 1 on the 'New York Times' best-seller list, I'm thinking of having the entire list tattooed on my body somewhere. It would be fabulous.

I heard you had to get 200 rejections before you got published.

Last week I was just someone who had had a first novel published.

I have been writing for 50 years and readers still read my first book from when I was in the Marine Corps.

It took me sixteen years to write.

I wrote my first full book when I was fourteen, and that was 'Obernewtyn.' It was also the first book I had published. It was accepted by the first publisher I sent it to, and it was short listed for Children's Book of the Year in the older readers category in Australia.