Ann Patchett, on the importance of books and reading:

You can't spend your whole life in front of a screen.

- Ann Patchett.

Introvert insight:

Whatever kind of introvert you are, some people will find you 'too much' in some ways and 'not enough' in others.

- Laurie Helgoe.

There's zero correlation between being the best talker and having the best ideas.

- Susan Cain.

Blessed are those who do not fear solitude, who are not afraid of their own company, who are not always desperately looking for something to do, something to amuse themselves with, something to judge.

- Paulo Coello.

Beware of those who seek constant crowds; they are nothing alone.

- Charles Bukowski.

E. L. Doctorow, on writing:

Good writing is supposed to evoke sensation in the reader - not the fact that it is raining,

but the feeling of being rained upon.

- E. L. Doctorow.

Doris Betts, on writing:

All one needs to write a story is one feeling and four walls.

- Doris Betts.

Mason Cooley, on reading:

Reading gives us someplace to go when we have to stay where we are.

- Mason Cooley.

Jane Austen, on novels:

It is only a novel ...

or, in short, only some work in which the greatest powers of the mind are displayed,

in which the most thorough knowledge of human nature,

the happiest delineation of its varieties,

the liveliest effusions of wit and humor,

are conveyed to the world in the best-chosen language.

- Jane Austen.

Chris Grabenstein, on reading:

Open a book and open your mind.

– Chris Grabenstein.

Simon Van Booy, on books and reading:

I read books because I love them,

not because I think I should read them.

- Simon Van Booy.

Isabel Allende, on writing:

Writing is a calling, not a choice.

- Isabel Allende.

Arthur Schopenhauer, on reading:

I've never known any trouble than an hour's reading didn't assuage.

- Arthur Schopenhauer.

Rachel Carson, on writing:

Writing is largely a matter of application and hard work,

or writing endlessly until you are satisfied that you have said what you want to say as clearly and simply as possible.

For me, that usually means many, many revisions.

- Rachel Carson.

Saul Bellow, on writing:

You never have to change anything you got up in the middle of the night to write.

- Saul Bellow.

Sue Grafton, on writing:

Writing isn't about the destination.

Writing is the journey that transforms the soul and gives meaning to all else.

- Sue Grafton.

Ernest Hemingway, on listening:

I like to listen.

I have learned a great deal from listening carefully.

Most people never listen.

- Ernest Hemingway.

Patricia Highsmith, on writing:

When I am thickening my plots, I like to think: 

'What if ... What if ...'

Thus, my imagination can move from the likely, 

which everyone can think of, 

to the unlikely-but-possible, 

my preferred plot.

- Patricia Highsmith.

George W. Buchanan, on reading:

The novel is an event in consciousness.

Our aim isn't to copy actuality, but to modify and recreate our sense of it.

The novelist is inviting the reader to watch a performance in his own brain.

- George W. Buchanan.

Naomi Shihab Nye, on reading:

I love the solitude of reading.

I love the deep dive into someone else's story, the delicious ache of a last page.

- Naomi Shihab Nye.

Victor Hugo, on writers:

A writer is a world trapped in a person.

- Victor Hugo.

Anais Nin, on books:

I have this weird obsession about buying books and looking at them with a smile, even if I won't read them soon.

At least they are mine now.

- Anais Nin.

George R. R. Martin, on books:

A mind needs books as a sword needs a whetstone,

if it is to keep its edge.

- George R. R. Martin.