Literary Partnership Quotes

A writer is, after all, only half his book. The other half is the reader and from the reader the writer learns.

If I could get someone like John Grisham or someone like that to sit down and write a book with me, I'd love that.

I ended up [doing video] meeting Gillian [Grassie] at the same time that we were getting together a book. We ended up working on it, and she recognized that I had a flair for certain things, and we've worked through it together so that the writing could be really good. It was the perfect partnership, just finding my literary voice and figuring out how comedy translates to the written word.

Over a period of about year-and-a-half, Malcolm X and [Alex] Haley agreed to work with each other. They met usually after a long business day that Malcolm put in very tired. He would get there at about - either at Haley's apartment or they would meet at then Idyllwild Airport at a hotel, and Malcolm would be debriefed by Haley. He would talk, Haley would take notes.

Writing is what we do. What else could I want in a life partner than someone who knows and shares what I do?

Roald Dahl worked with other illustrators, but it was only when he teamed up with Quentin Blake that the chemistry began to fizz. Quentin Blake is Britain's greatest living illustrator and has that special talent all the great illustrators have, of unobtrusive brilliance.

In the case of The Loved One, I was hired to collaborate on an updated version of the book.

There's a hidden history. You see, Malcolm X and [Alex ] Haley collaborated to produce a magnificent narrative about the life of Malcolm X, but the two men had very different motives in coming together.

As science-fiction was what I read in college, it was natural that I should be tempted to write it. So I did, and continued to do so, even while I was co-authoring mysteries with my husband Evan.

The writer who can't do his job looks to his editor to do it for him, though he won't dream of sharing his royalties with that editor.

Words build a bridge between the imaginations of writer and reader, creating something unique between them.

I can see how a relationship with a writer would be an easy thing.

I've always believed in writing without a collaborator, because where two people are writing the same book, each believes he gets all the worry and only half the royalties.

A novel is a relationship, you know? When you read a book, the writer has done half the work, and you're doing half the work. You're providing the imagination; the words are turning into pictures in your mind. There's an active relationship that's going on.

Authors don't tend to stay with the same agents and editors over their entire lifetimes, but Grafton worked with Marian Wood, her editor at Putnam, from Kinsey's first outing, and signed with Molly Friedrich, still her literary agent, with the publication of 'B Is for Burglar.'

My personal relationship with Ali began in 1988, when we met in New York to explore the possibility of my writing the book that ultimately became 'Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times.'

Most writers adore their editors, and I'm no exception.

I was lucky in getting my first book published; my first book was 'Bunnicula,' which I wrote with my late wife Debbie, for the fun of it.

The act of reading is a partnership. The author builds a house, but the reader makes it a home.

We're writing a book together. She just finished one. Did you read it? Among the Porcupines?

It became plain very soon after our marriage that ours was to be a literary partnership.