Dorothy M.

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Dorothy M.

We weren’t very happy with Brian M. (as he will tell you) when we first started. After going through all the material, he has been wonderful! We love what he has done and has added so much to the book with his research! We couldn’t be happier. Thank you for choosing Brian to work on the book.

The fact is, I don’t know where my ideas come from. Nor does any writer. The only real answer is to drink way too much coffee and buy yourself a desk that doesn’t collapse when you beat your head against it.

Douglas Adams

If you wait for inspiration to write, you’re not a writer. You’re a waiter.

Dan Poynter

No one can write decently who is distrustful of the reader’s intelligence or whose attitude is patronizing.

E. B. White

When writing a novel, that’s pretty much entirely what life turns into: “House burned down. Car stolen. Cat exploded. Did 1,500 easy words, so all in all it was a pretty good day.”

Neil Gaiman

I have a structured songwriting process. I start with the music and try to come up with musical ideas, then the melody, then the hook, and the lyrics come last.

John Legend

Reading and weeping opens the door to one’s heart, but writing and weeping opens the window to one’s soul.

M. K. Simmons

The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do.

Thomas Jefferson

If you haven’t got an idea, start a story anyway. You can always throw it away, and maybe by the time you get to the fourth page you will have an idea, and you’ll only have to throw away the first three pages.

William C. Gault

A good novel tells us the truth about its hero; but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author.

G.K. Chesterton

I have long felt that any reviewer who expresses rage and loathing for a novel is preposterous. He or she is like a person who has just put on full armor and attacked a hot fudge sundae or banana split.

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr

What I loved most about calling myself a reporter was that it gave me an excuse to show up anyplace.

Jeanette Walls

It is perfectly okay to write garbage — as long as you edit brilliantly.

C. J. Cherryh

A true author, no matter the medium, is an artist with godlike knowledge of his subject, and the proof of his authorship is that his pages smack of authority.

Robert McKee

Books aren’t written, they’re rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hasn’t quite done it.

Michael Crichton

Easy reading is damn hard writing.

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.

E. L. Doctorow

Critics are people who sit on the mountaintop and look down on the battlefield. When the fighting is finished, they take it upon themselves to come down from the mountain and shoot the survivors.

Robert Altman

Do not place a photograph of your favorite author on your desk, especially if the author is one of the famous ones who committed suicide.

Roddy Doyle

The reason 99% of all stories written are not bought by editors is very simple. Editors never buy manuscripts that are left on the closet shelf at home.

John Campbell

Writing is the only thing that, when I do it, I don’t feel I should be doing something else.