Top 100 Quotes About Authors
#1. I mention this only to shew that the citations of the most judicious authors frequently deceive us, and consequently that prudence obliges us to examine quotations, by whomsoever alleged.
Pierre Bayle
#2. I'm working with published authors and some very young undergraduates and lots of people in between. They are lovely people, and they can write.
Mal Peet
#3. I would like to champion diverse forms like graphic novels and works told in verse and diverse writers and illustrators and diverse authors as well.
Malorie Blackman
#4. There seemed to be a mystifying universal conspiracy among textbook authors to make certain the material they dealt with never strayed too near the realm of the mildly interesting and was always at least a long-distance phone call from the frankly interesting.
Bill Bryson
#5. I want people to be the authors of their own life story.
Michael Gove
#6. Authors frequently say things they are unaware of; only after they have gotten the reactions of their readers do they discover what they have said
Umberto Eco
#7. Millions of people are provided with their thoughts as with their clothes; authors, printers, booksellers, and newsmen stand, in relation to their minds, simply as shoemakers and tailors stand to their bodies.
George Augustus Henry Sala
#8. The lives of most authors - even, or perhaps especially, the great ones - are necessarily a catalogue of tedious inwardness and cloistered composition. Globe-trotting Hemingways and brawling Christopher Marlowes are the exception, not the rule.
Paul Di Filippo
#9. Women's studies needed a syllabus and so invented a canon overnight. It puffed up clunky, mundane contemporary women authors into Oz-like, skywriting dirigibles. Our best women students are being force-fed an appalling diet of cant, drivel and malarkey.
Camille Paglia
#10. You can sell a lot more books if you work with other authors than if you try to do everything all by yourself.
John Kremer
#11. How a big majority of book critics and authors have come to believe and to teach that no book is true to life unless it is true to the worst in life, God knows ...
Gene Stratton-Porter
#12. Books exceed authors' lifespan.
Toba Beta
#13. Classic authors should be older than I am, and wiser, and on-top of all their deadlines.
Neil Gaiman
#14. In the absence of any concrete evidence. I plump for Leonard Stock as the murderer. First, because he's the most unlikely person, and as anyone who has ever read a murder story knows, it's always the most unlikely person who turns out to have done the deed--and fifty thousand authors can't be wrong.
M.M. Kaye
#15. There were speeches made in Congress in the very last session before the outbreak of the Rebellion, so ferocious as to show that their authors were under the influence of a real frenzy.
Edward Everett
#16. Authors, he thought. Even the sane ones are nuts.
Dan Brown
#17. Just so you know, the authors lie when they say it tastes sweet and salty. I will tell you the truth, it is slimy, gooey and thick. Yes, thick. Gross, but I did it for Jake, my husband, the love of my life.
Victoria Andrews
#18. I wonder what book signings will be like when most of the books we read are electronic. Will authors sign something else? A flyer, perhaps? A special kind of card devised for the purpose?
Susan Orlean
#19. Most authors would be the first to admit the best of their writing is beyond even them. It comes from someplace outside the conscious realm.
K.M. Weiland
#20. Soon after publishing a book for kids, my mailbox began to fill with letters from children all across America. Not because my novels for young readers are bestsellers - they're not by a long shot - but because today's kids love to write to authors.
Rodman Philbrick
#21. Writers, naturally, dream of becoming authors. Authors dream of writing a bestseller. Bestselling authors want to write more bestsellers. And everyone hopes for big prizes. Why? Because we believe in magic. Publisher's Weekly magazine, Dec. 12, 2011
Amy Hill Hearth
#22. It infuriates me that the work of white American writers can be universal and lay claim to classic texts, while black and female authors are ghetto-ized as 'other.'
Jesmyn Ward
#23. I suspect that most authors don't really want criticism, not even constructive criticism. They want straight-out, unabashed, unashamed, fulsome, informed, naked praise, arriving by the shipload every fifteen minutes or so.
Neil Gaiman
#24. I used to read a lot. But my focus has gotten worse. My favorites are Russian authors and dark stories where there's no hope.
Robert Pattinson
#25. I started the movement of SF in America in 1908 through my first magazine, 'MODERN ELECTRICS.' At that time it was an experiment. Science fiction authors were scarce. There were not a dozen worth mentioning in the entire world
Hugo Gernsback
#26. In due course, I came to classify writers into two categories: those who enabled you to arrive on time and those who caused you to be late. The Russian authors earned me a whole string of detentions.
Jean-Michel Guenassia
#27. Liberals see the Constitution itself as 'living' and 'evolving' that is, gradually turning into something that would have been unrecognizable to its authors.
Joseph Sobran
#28. Musicians are at the bottom of the creative pyramid and authors are at the top, and many people think it's unacceptable for someone to attempt to jump from the bottom to the top of the pyramid.
Nick Cave
#29. Authors are supernatural beings. They exist in the world, also in worlds they create, and in the worlds of other authors they read.
Lani Brown
#30. I don't think that writing talent has much to do with where one went to school, or the number of degrees on one's business card, but I do get a bit bristly at the implication that romance authors couldn't possibly be smart enough to get into an Ivy League school.
Julia Quinn
#31. The deceitful misquoting of scientists to suit an anti-scientific agenda ranks among the many unchristian habits of fundamentalist authors.
Richard Dawkins
#32. I would rather ride on the far distant coattails of established authors than to follow the inexperienced whose whims change with the direction of the wind.
Peggy Randall-Martin
#33. Authors are like cattle going to a fair: those of the same field can never move on without butting one another.
Walter Savage Landor
#34. Nordie's at Noon is an honest and inspiring testament to [these authors'] experiences which, I am completely confident ... will inspire thousands of women as it inspired me.
Elizabeth Edwards
#35. Most books set in England between 1800 and 1840 have a 'Regency' feel. The reason that era is so useful for romance authors stems from the wide-ranging social changes that were occurring over that time, and the parallels, or echoes, those create with our time and the lives of our readers.
Stephanie Laurens
#36. What a heartbreaking job it is trying to combine authors for their own protection ... the first lesson I learned was that when you take the field for the authors you will be safer without a breastplate than without a backplate.
George Bernard Shaw
#37. I thought it was amazing to work with authors, to get a manuscript and try to make up a cover for it.
Dick Bruna
#38. Collectively the media; the meat, oil, and dairy industries; most prominent chefs and cookbook authors; and our own government are not presenting accurate advice about the healthiest way to eat.
Caldwell Esselstyn
#39. Said one of the wise: the wrath of you did not do evil in you, "Go for it authors of" you, anger exposes quality of human beings
Undefined
#40. Print-on-demand publishing is the new farm system for new voices in fiction. Authors who have compelling things to say, who can market their stories in compelling ways, will succeed.
Daniel Suarez
#41. We see them when they come to New York. They stay at my wife's apartment. We have quite a correspondence with them at all times. They play a very important role, the authors in the firm, because so much of the material we publish is suggested by them.
James Laughlin
#42. Many books owe their success to the good memories of their authors and the bad memories of their readers.
Charles Caleb Colton
#43. Levi is one of the best authors I've ever read. It's hard not to have an immediate personal response to his work. He has such a quiet tone.
John Turturro
#44. They went on to support their thesis by citing authors with esoteric names, whose works they themselves had not read, a fact which enabled them to speak about them penetratingly.
Amelie Nothomb
#45. The great authors were great readers, and one way to understand them is to read the books they read.
Mortimer J. Adler
#46. The little honesty that exists among authors is discernible in the unconscionable way they misquote from the writings of others.
Arthur Schopenhauer
#47. We are the authors of the stories our soul unfolds.
Jodi Livon
#48. The reason authors almost always put a dedication on a book is, because their selfishness even horrifies themselves in the end.
Stephen King
#49. Obviously, my name is known now, but I don't think people generally tend to recognize authors very much. People like J. K. Rowling maybe, Gillian Flynn might be recognized, but I reckon she could walk by me on the street, and I wouldn't know who she was.
Paula Hawkins
#50. Armchair poverty tourism has been around as long as authors have written about class. As an author, I have struggled myself with the nuances of writing about poverty without reducing any community to a catalog of its difficulties.
Leslie Jamison
#51. Often in the past, there have been authors that were deeply disappointed in their adaptation, but that's because they haven't accepted the fact that a movie is a different thing, and it can't possibly be the same as the book.
Lois Lowry
#52. Normally I would not recommend a book that tells you how to make money in the stock market. Most of these books are aimed at gullible folk, and they usually make much more money for their authors than they do for the investing public.
Gavyn Davies
#53. Politicians are much like aging authors and older women. The dangerous phase in their lives is when they are no longer content with the respect of friends but demand the adulation of an audience.
Michael Dobbs
#54. The human authors and editors of the Old Testament brought their own experiences and presuppositions to the task of writing. We don't often think about this when we read the Bible.
Adam Hamilton
#55. I try to be a lot of things for the authors I work with - a careful reader, a helpful friend who also happens to be an experienced writer, a thoughtful editor, and a creative midwife.
Kevin Sampsell
#56. We who have been true readers all our life fully realize the enormous of our being which we owe to authors.
C.S. Lewis
#58. Those authors into whose hands nature has placed a magic wand, with which they no sooner touch us than we forget the unhappiness in life, than the darkness leaves our soul, and we are reconciled to existence, should be placed among the benefactors of the human race.
Denis Diderot
#59. My ultimate crush may be Judith McNaught - I met her once more than 20 years ago, and she was incredibly kind and encouraging to me. I adore that woman. But I also fangirl over aspiring or beginning authors, because every time I talk with them, I'm so energized and inspired.
Lisa Kleypas
#60. In the history of literature there are many great enduring works which were not published in the lifetimes of the authors. If the authors had not achieved self-affirmation while writing, how could they have continued to write?
Gao Xingjian
#61. The difficulty that many foreign authors face in having their works translated into English has effects far beyond the United States.
Stephen Kinzer
#62. If I had my way books would not be written in English but in an exceedingly difficult secret language ... This plan would have the advantage of scaring off all amateur authors, retired politicians, country doctors ... who would not have the patience to learn the secret language.
Robertson Davies
#63. I want to offer a word of encouragement to authors: You have to feel called to the message of your book enough that you want people to get that message. When you get to that place, your passion goes through the roof, and then the other stuff happens.
Jud Wilhite
#64. As water tastes of the soil it runs through, so does the soul taste of the authors that a man reads.
John Trapp
#65. You name drop authors like other girls drop boy bands.
Danielle Paige
#66. The novel is very much alive, indeed. In Toronto at the Sixth Annual International Festival of Authors (October 1985) I listened to novelists by the dozen.
William Golding
#67. I tend to go back and forth between old favourites and "new" stuff, some of which could easily be by authors I've hitherto heard about but haven't had the chance to catch up with.
Gemma Files
#68. Movie people think things are movies, and authors think things should be movies because, up until recently, movies have been the jewel in the crown. But, that seems to be changing.
Chris Albrecht
#69. I think I can safely call 2012 average. Overall, it was a stronger year for nonfiction than fiction - a situation that would've surprised me back in January, when I was looking forward to big new novels from several authors I really love.
David Edelstein
#70. My urge at Christmas time or Hanukkah-time or Kwanzaa-time is that people go to bookstores: that they walk around bookstores and look at the shelves. Go to look for authors that they've loved in the past and see what else those authors have written.
Michael Dirda
#71. Leaders (Authors) are visionaries with a poorly developed sense of fear and no concept of the odds against them.
-Robert Jarvik
Taylor Lee
#72. As opposed to being on the Internet, there's something really nice about reading a book or talking to authors.
Hans Zimmer
#73. It's that drama that drives authors, you know.
Julie Kenner
#74. Books can't matter much if their authors themselves don't think they matter.
W. Somerset Maugham
#75. Quotations (such as have point and lack triteness) from the great old authors are an act of reverence on the part of the quoter, and a blessing to a public grown superficial and external.
Louise Imogen Guiney
#76. I like reading history, and actually most authors enjoy the research part because it is, after all, easier than writing.
Ken Follett
#77. When a group of ultra-opinionated, uber-creative romance authors get together, I'm sure you guys can imagine how fast the ideas start flying!
Teresa Medeiros
#78. I decided to work on hand animate because the animators work as authors in every little scene and it brings real soul for characters.
Luiz Bolognesi
#79. Dickens is one of those authors who are well worth stealing.
George Orwell
#80. Make your decision, one moment you need to follow somebody for awesome stuff. But other you just add him to your favourites authors and you check out everyday his progress, awesome.
Deyth Banger
#81. Book writing is not a get-rich-quick scheme. Anyone who decides to write a book must expect to invest a lot of time and effort without any guarantee of success. Books do not write themselves and they do not sell themselves. Authors write and promote their books.
Dan Poynter
#82. Despite the best efforts of critics and the hopes of authors, our tastes in books are probably as inherent & unbudgeable as those in food.
Alain De Botton
#83. The gospels were, in fact, written anywhere from forty to a hundred years after Jesus, and their authors attempted to demonstrate that Jesus could be seen to fulfill various Old Testament pronouncements.
Jay Parini
#84. Teachers're always using that "in your own words." I hate that. Authors knit their sentences tight. It's their job. Why make us unpick them, just to put it back together more shonkily? How're you s'posed to say Kapellmeister if you can't say Kapellmeister?
David Mitchell
#85. The spiritual-but-nonreligious movement is largely driven by charismatic authors and speakers who attract like-minded people to their workshops and intensives.
Gudjon Bergmann
#86. Even the contemporary horror authors who have seriously influenced me are a disparate bunch.
George Stephen
#87. Monarchs ought to put to death the authors and instigators of war, as their sworn enemies and as dangers to their states.
Elizabeth I
#88. One of the things that all authors of fiction must learn to judge is whether - and in what detail - to describe the face of a character.
Lynne Truss
#89. When authors and critics talk of the sublime, they see not how nearly it borders on the ridiculous.
Thomas Paine
#90. Authors worry. We worry about writing. Worry about our editors, our agents, our reviews, and our readers. We worry about everything, including all forms of social media including blogs, Facebook, Twitter, and personal websites.
David Macinnis Gill
#91. Nothing is impossible to gods and authors.
Will Durant
#92. Nowadays I find so many 'evidences' in the manuscripts, it seems authors are colluding to wipe out the evidence from the written form.
James Oinam
#93. I have no patience with up-themselves authors who complain about having to trail round a few bookshops signing stock.
Nicholas Royle
#94. In the present age, alas! our pens are ravished by unlettered authors and unmannered critics, that make a havoc rather than a building, a wilderness rather than a garden. But, a lack! what boots it to drop tears upon the preterit?
Aubrey Beardsley
#95. No one should be judged for what they read, nor should authors by what they write.
Karina Halle
#96. Language gradually varies, and with it fade away the writings of authors who have flourished their allotted time; otherwise, the creative powers of genius would overstock the world, and the mind would be completely bewildered in the endless mazes of literature.
Washington Irving
#97. There are many traditionally published authors who have hated the cover their publisher's decided on. Or the title or the marketing or the advertising. But there was nothing they could do about it.
M.J. Rose
#98. The ones that landed near the bathroom are Bad Tolkien imitations or transcripts of a D&D adventure; bad Herbert, Heinlein, and Asimov are below the television; and these on the bed are the ones whose authors I want to hunt down personally and slap.
Sharyn McCrumb
#99. Young authors give their brains much exercise and little food.
Joseph Joubert
#100. I don't think I can pick apart how I was influenced by which author. But these were the authors whose books I went back to again and again when I was in high school and college, when I first started trying to write stories.
Martha Wells
