National Book Lovers Day – August 9:

 

Olin Miller, on writing:

Writing is the hardest way of earning a living, with the possible exception of wrestling alligators.

- Olin Miller.

There's a lot more to writing a book than most people think ...

Buy books ...

You can't buy happiness, but you can buy books.

And that's kind of the same thing.

Things book lovers do ...

Reading ...

Reading ...

that place where you're by yourself, but you are never alone.

Dorothy Parker, on creativity:

Creativity is a wild mind and a disciplined eye.

- Dorothy Parker.

Gustave Flaubert, on writing:

Writing is a dog's life, but the only life worth living.

- Gustave Flaubert.

C. S. Lewis, on writing:

Whenever you are fed up with life, start writing:

ink is the great cure for all human ills,

as I have found out long ago.

- C. S. Lewis.

Rainer Maria Rilke, on writing:

Find out the reason that commands you to write; see whether it has spread its roots into the very depth of you heart; confess to yourself you would have to die if you were forbidden to write.

- Rainer Maria Rilke.

E.B. White, on writing:

I admire anyone who has the guts to write anything at all.

- E.B. White.

Mordecai Richler, on writing:

Fundamentally, all writing is about the same thing; it's about dying, about the brief flicker of time we have here, and the frustration that it creates.

- Mordecai Richler.

Mary Lee Settle, on writing:

Anyone who has a choice and doesn't choose to write is a fool.

The work is hard, the perks are few, the pay is terrible, and the product, when it's finally finished, is pure joy.

- Mary Lee Settle.

Franz Kafka, on writing:

A non-writing writer is a monster courting insanity.

- Franz Kafka.

Charles Bukowski, on writers:

Lawyers, doctors, plumbers, they all made the money.

Writers?

Writers starved.

Writers suicided.

Writers went mad.

- Charles Bukowski.

Stephen King, on writing:

Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.

- Stephen King.

Simone de Beauvoir, on writing:

A day in which I don't write leaves a taste of ashes.

- Simone de Beauvoir.

John D. MacDonald, on writing:

My purpose is to entertain myself first and other people secondly.

- John D. MacDonald.

Jane Yolen, on writing:

Exercise the writing muscles every day, even if it is only a letter, note, a title list, a character sketch, a journal entry.

Writers are like dancers, like athletes.

Without that exercise, the muscles seize up.

- Jane Yolen.

Ray Bradbury, on writing:

You only fail if you stop writing.

- Ray Bradbury.