Writer Quotes

You climb to reach the summit, but once there, discover that all roads lead down.

Where do consequences lead? Depends on the escort.

To torture a man you have to know his pleasures.

A dream will always triumph over reality, once it is given the chance.

Do not trust people. They are capable of greatness.

Cannibals prefer those who have no spines.

To Paradise, the Arabs say, Satan could never find the way Until the peacock led him in.

They saw a Dream of Loveliness descending from the train.

The brave deserve the lovely - every woman may be won.

It was the noise Of ancient trees falling while all was still Before the storm, in the long interval Between the gathering clouds and that light breeze Which Germans call the Wind's bride.

We breathe, we think, we conceive of our lives as narratives.

There is no medical proof that television causes brain damage - at least from over five feet away. In fact, TV is probably the least physically harmful of all the narcotics known to man.

The beginning of a plot is the prompting of desire.

There's nothing more irresistible to a man than a woman who's in love with him.

After all, the wool of a black sheep is just as warm.

Writing is writing, and stories are stories. Perhaps the only true genres are fiction and non-fiction. And even there, who can be sure?

Writers tell stories better, because they've had more practice, but everyone has a book in them. Yes, that old cliche.

When I am fascinated by something, I like to play with it.

The other writer who had a very important early influence on me when I was about 17 was C.S. Lewis.

Pirates have always fascinated me.

People are always the start for me... animals, when I can get into their heads, gods, supernatural beings, immortals, the dead... these are all people to me.

No one is ever ordinary.

It's very selfish when I write. I'm not aware, ever, of writing for another person; I'm not even really aware of writing for myself.

If they had said my writing wasn't good enough, fair enough, that's an opinion. But to say it's too complex is to insult the intelligence of the so-called young.

I've been criticised for writing in too complex a manner for younger people.

I'm writing what comes into my head, or through me, or from somewhere else, and it is the most extraordinary, exciting thing. I love it, and I'm very greedy, and I really enjoy it!

I think of myself as a storyteller, and that is it.

I submitted manuscripts to publishers. This was not so much a feeling that I should be published as a wish to escape the feared and hated drudgery of normal work.

I never know where I am going, though. That is part of what makes it so wonderful. And after all, who does?

I love writers all across the board, but one who influenced me very directly at the beginning was Mary Renault.