I can't say I wasn't warned. Alarms started clanging the day I signed to write 'His Way: The Unauthorized Biography of Frank Sinatra' (Bantam Books, 1986).
I want to do something splendid… Something heroic or wonderful that won’t be forgotten after I’m dead… I think I shall write books.
I am hard at work on the second draft ... Second draft is really a misnomer as there are a gazillion revisions, large and small, that go into the writing of a book.
I like terrific writing, but I also like a terrific story. My favorite books have both, and they're by contemporary, commercial American writers.
It's - I write the books and let the market find who reads it. I guess a young adult is anywhere from ten to fifteen.
I used to think, 'I'm going to write.' I knew that from quite early on, but I also thought, 'Maybe I'll be an explorer or a spy,' and it all came from books.
I have been writing for 50 years and readers still read my first book from when I was in the Marine Corps.
I don't think I'm essentially interested in children's books. I'm interested in writing, and in pictures. I'm interested in people and in children because they are people.
One of the biggest motivations for me with writing my books is to offer girls some escapism, especially girls who really need it, like I did.
I don't write that much horror. People tell me my books are scary, but they're not really; I don't go there.
We do not need to proselytise either by our speech or by our writing. We can only do so really with our lives. Let our lives be open books for all to study.
If one book's done this well, you want to write another one that does just as well. There's that horror of the second novel that doesn't match up.
The one thing you have to do if you write a book is put yourself in someone else's shoes. The reader's shoes. You've got to entertain them.
I take six or seven years to write really small books. There is a kind of aesthetic of leanness, of brevity.
Make today the day you begin that awesome idea you have had for years. Now go, write this book, and remember that today is an important day in history.
When I sit down I write very fast... if I haven't finished a book in two or three months then I think it's not going well.
One of the things I love about labeling myself as an author is that I can read books and call it "researching writing styles." --Mike Mankoff
I really don't know what I am going to do in terms of what a book is going to be about until I actually start writing it!
It seems like just yesterday my son was hiding under the table to avoid reading. Now, he's writing books longer than mine!
Don't be so impatient in finding love; take your time & allow the Lord to write that special love story for you. Otherwise you'll be busy reading the back of the book.
How is your book doing?" or "How many copies have you sold?" are the questions for a salesman. To a writer, you better ask "What did you write today?".
