Elbert Hubbard, on being a writer and an introvert:

He who does not understand your silence will probably not understand your words.

- Elbert Hubbard.

Kate Atkinson, on words:

In the end, it is my belief, words are the only things that can construct a world that makes sense.

- Kate Atkinson.

Richard Francis Burton, on books:

 

Home is where the books are.
- Richard Francis Burton.

Ursula K. Le Guin, on being an introvert and a writer:

Hardly anybody ever writes anything nice about introverts.

Extroverts rule.

This is rather odd when you realise that about nineteen writers out of twenty are introverts.

We are being taught to be ashamed of not being 'outgoing'.

But a writer's job is ingoing.

- Ursula K. Le Guin.

Holbrook Jackson, on reading:

Never put off till tomorrow the book you can read today.

- Holbrook Jackson.

Ayelet Waldman, on writers and inspiration:

Most writers spend their lives standing a little apart from the crowd,

watching and listening and hoping to catch that tiny hint of despair,

that sliver of malice,

that makes them think,

'Aha, here is the story.'

- Ayelet Waldman.

Introvert insight:

The secret to life is to put yourself in the right lighting.
For some, it’s a Broadway spotlight; for others, a lamplit desk.
Use your natural powers – of persistence, concentration, and insight – to do work you love and work that matters.
Solve problems.
Make art.
Think deeply.
 
– Susan Cain.

 I prefer tongue-tied knowledge to ignorant loquacity.
 
– Marcus Tullius Cicero.
 

Our culture made a virtue of living only as extroverts.
We discouraged the inner journey, the quest for a center.
So we lost our center and have to find it again.
 
– Anaïs Nin.
 

He’s a wallflower.
You see things.
You keep quiet about them.
And you understand.
 
– Stephen Chbosky.

Haruki Murakami, on writing:

For me, writing a novel is like having a dream.

Writing a novel lets me intentionally dream while I'm still awake.

I can continue yesterday's dream today,

something you can't normally do in everyday life.

- Haruki Murakami.

Michelle Obama, on the arts:

The arts are not just a nice thing to have or to do if there is free time or if one can afford it.

Rather, paintings and poetry, music and fashion, design and dialogue, they all define who we are as a people and provide an account of our history for the next generation.

- Michelle Obama.

Annie Dillard, on reading:

Why are we reading, if not in hope of beauty laid bare, life heightened and its deepest mystery probed?

Can the writer isolate and vivify all in experience that most deeply engages our intellects and our hearts?

Can the writer renew our hope for literary forms?

Why are we reading if not in hope that the writer will magnify and dramatize our days,

will illuminate and inspire us with wisdom, courage, and the possibility of meaningfulness,

and will press upon our minds the deepest mysteries,

so that we may feel again their majesty and power?

– from The Writing Life, by Annie Dillard.

Francis Bacon, on writing:

Write down the thoughts of the moment.

Those that come unsought for are commonly the most valuable.

- Francis Bacon.

J.K. Rowling, on reading and imagination:

I don't believe in the kind of magic in my books.

But I do believe something very magical can happen when you read a good book.

- J.K. Rowling.

Stephen King, on books:

Books are the perfect entertainment: no commercials, no batteries, hours of enjoyment for each dollar spent. 

What I wonder is why everybody doesn't carry a book around for those inevitable dead spots in life.

- Stephen King.

Elizabeth Hardwick, on reading:

 

The greatest gift is a passion of reading.

It is cheap, it consoles, it distracts, it excites,
it gives you knowledge of the world and experience of a wide kind.

It is a moral illumination.

- Elizabeth Hardwick.

Samuel Johnson, on writing:

In this work are exhibited, in a very high degree, the two most engaging powers of an author.

New things are made familiar, and familiar things are made new.

- Samuel Johnson.

Jules Renard, on books and reading:

When I think of all the books still left for me to read,
I am certain of further happiness.
– Jules Renard.
 

Fran Lebowitz, on reading:

Think before you speak.

Read before you think.

- Fran Lebowitz.

Raymond Chandler, on writing:

The most durable thing in writing is style,

and style is the most valuable investment a writer can make with his time.

It pays off slowly,

your agent will sneer at it,

your publisher will misunderstand it,

and it will take people you have never heard of to convince them by slow degrees that the writer who puts his individual mark on the way he writes will always pay off.

- Raymond Chandler.

Patricia A. McKillip, on books:

 

The odd thing about people who had many books was how they always wanted more.

– Patricia A. McKillip.

Ray Bradbury, on imagination:

Love what you do and do what you love.

Don't listen to anyone else who tells you not to do it.

You do what you want, what you love.

Imagination should be the center of your life.

– Ray Bradbury.