Even I thought I would be a writer who put something out every year. But that's not how it worked out.
It's hard work, writing, you know. Honestly, a fight every day against your own limitations. You have to squeeze books out of your brain, you're constantly trying to solve challenges. I think most writers enjoy the feeling of having written something, rather than the process of writing it.
Irene Nemirovsky was a prolific writer punctiliously devoted to her craft.
The idea of being productive, the idea of producing many books is going to lead you toward you becoming a better and better writer.
A woman who writes commits two sins; she increases the number of books, and decreases the number of women.
Sparky's the only guy I know who's written more books than he's read.
Excessive literary production is a social offense.
I'm probably the only bestselling author you know who's written more books than she's read.
I don't know how many good books I still have in me; I hope there are another four or five.
I'm not interested in the fact that a writer may label himself as being intellectual or anti-intellectual. l'm really interested in the stuff he's turning out.
The thing is - do we really need another writer who writes a book every eighteen months, whether the quality is wonderful or not? I mean, maybe. But I can name twenty off the top of my head who do it. Maybe what we need is a writer like me who goes very slow, as well.
Many years, I would publish four books - an anthology, a book of criticism, a new book of poems, a book of essays.
When I was one day old, I learned how to read. When I was two days old, I started to write. By the time I was three, I had finished 212 short stories, 38 novels, 730 poems, and one very funny limerick, all before breakfast.
but as God said, crossing his legs, I see where I have made plenty of poets but not so very much poetry.
I got into my usual obsessive writing frenzy, using all the material I'd worked on for so long and crafting it into a little novel [Bridget Jones's Baby: The Diaries].
So many (too many) books are published every year, and it seems everyone is writing a book. Perhaps we should all be reading more and writing less!
Is it not superfluous to write more than one novel if the writer has not become, say, a new man? Obviously, all the novels of an author not infrequently belong together and are to a certain degree only one novel.
I reckon I can count on 30 more writing years, averaging a book a year (I can't keep up the 2-2.5 a year I used to do these days). And these days I've gotten round to wondering, for each new idea, "do I want to be remembered for this?" before I get to the point of spending a year on it.
I can't keep up with Stephen King's output.
Graham Greene at 82 years old was still writing, and I don't think anyone can deny the force, the expertise, and the unique quality of his writing, if you take his complete oeuvre.
The definition of a writing career, is write a book, write another book, write another book
And then I wrote my first autobiography when I - well, it was 23 years ago. And since then I've written about one book every two years.
Lermontov died at age twenty-eight and wrote more than have you and I put together. Talent is recognizable not only by quality, but also by the quantity it yields.
I have written about 240 books and some short stories, too. It's taken me many years.
Japan, Germany, and India seem to me to have serious writers, readers, and book buyers, but the Netherlands has struck me as the most robust literary culture in the world.
