Jhumpa Lahiri, on writing:

The urge to convert experience into a group of words

that are in a grammatical relation to one another

is the most basic, ongoing impulse of my life.

- Jhumpa Lahiri.

Stephen King, on writing:

 

In both writing and sleeping, we learn to be physically still at the same time we are encouraging our minds to unlock from the humdrum rational thinking of our daytime lives.
- Stephen King.

Mary Roberts Rinehart, on writing:

The author lives with one foot in an everyday world

and the other feeling about anxiously for a foothold in another more precarious one.

- Mary Roberts Rinehart.

Nicholson Baker, on books:

 

Books: 

a beautifully browsable invention that needs no electricity and exists in a readable form no matter what happens.

- Nicholson Baker.

Mary Higgins Clark, on writing:

 

A common question asked of writers is "When did you decide to become a writer?"
The answer, of course, is that we didn't decide anything.
It was decided for us.
I firmly believe that mythical godmothers make appearances at our cradles, and bestow their gifts.
The godmother who might have blessed me with a singing voice did not show up;
the goddess of dance was nowhere in sight;
the chef-to-the-angels was otherwise engaged.
Only one made the journey to my cradle, and she whispered, "You will be a storyteller."
- Mary Higgins Clark.

Margaret Atwood, on reading:

 

I read for pleasure and that is the moment I learn the most.
– Margaret Atwood.

Ann Patchett, on writing:

 

I made a startling discovery.
Time spent writing = output of work.
Amazing.
- Ann Patchett.

Henry David Thoreau, on books:

Books are the carriers of civilization.

Without books, history is silent.

- Henry David Thoreau. 

Madeleine L'Engle, on writing:

You have to write the book that wants to be written.

- Madeleine L'Engle. 

Lauren Oliver, on books:

But...books are so much more.
Some of them are webs; you can feel your way along their threads, but just barely, into strange and dark corners.
Some of them are balloons bobbing up through the sky: totally self-contained, and unreachable, but beautiful to watch.
And some of them – the best ones – are doors.
 
– Lauren Oliver.

Jhumpa Lahiri, on writing:

It interests me to imagine characters shifting

from one situation and one location to another

for whatever the circumstances may be.

- Jhumpa Lahiri.

                              

Veronica Roth, on writing:

 

I've done without doing things, like sleeping and eating, but I need to write.

- Veronica Roth.

Julia Alvarez, on writing and reading:

The elasticity of imagination and compassion is what writing and reading promote.

– Julia Alvarez.

Shannon Hale, on words:

 

Words can fall hard like a boulder loosed from a cliff.
Words can drift unnoticed like a weed seed on a breeze.
Words can sing.
- Shannon Hale.

Ursula K. Le Guin, on books and reading:

 

As you read a book word by word and page by page, you participate in its creation, just as a cellist playing a Bach suite participates, note by note, in the creation, the coming-to-be, the existence, of the music.

And, as you read and re-read, the book of course participates in the creation of you, your thoughts and feelings, the size and temper of your soul.

– Ursula K. Le Guin.

Mabel Seeley, on imagination:

 

Imagination is so much harder to face than reality.

– Mabel Seeley.

Mary Higgins Clark, on writing:

 

The first four months of writing the book, my mental image is scratching with my hands through granite.

My other image is pushing a train up the mountain, and it's icy, and I'm in bare feet.
- Mary Higgins Clark.

Anne Rice, on writing:

Go where the pleasure is in your writing.
Go where the pain is.
Write the book you would like to read.
Write the book you have been trying to find but have not found.
But write.
And remember, there are no rules for our profession.
Ignore rules.
Ignore what I say here if it doesn't help you.
Do it your own way.
Every writer knows fear and discouragement.
Just write.
The world is crying for new writing.
It is crying for fresh and original voices and new characters and new stories.
If you won't write the classics of tomorrow, well, we will not have any.
- Anne Rice

Madeleine L'Engle, on writing:

 

With each book I write, I become more and more convinced that the books have a life of their own, quite apart from me.
- Madeleine L'Engle.

Anne Rice, on writing:

Obsession led me to write.

It's been that way with every book I've ever written.

I become completely consumed by a theme, by characters, by a desire to meet a challenge.

- Anne Rice.