Focus in on the genre you want to write, and read books in that genre. A LOT of books by a variety of authors. And read with questions in your mind.
There’s always pressure, a great deal of pressure, when writing, since my first books were so successful.
Remember: A best-selling book usually follows a simple rule, It’s a wonderful story, wonderfully told; not, It’s a wonderfully told story.
By making the place and the people and the feelings real, by the time someone closes the cover of one of my books, they have, hopefully, felt all of the emotions of life.
She liked to sit on the front porch in the afternoons and read books she’d checked out from the library. Aside from coffee, reading was her only indulgence.
To be quite honest, I’ve been very blessed when I’ve worked with Hollywood. The studios that have purchased my work to be adapted to film have really liked the work and wanted to stay as close as they could to what the book was.
The first thing I did when I sold my book was buy a new wedding ring for my wife and asked her to marry me all over again.
I’m the world ‘Guinness Book of Records’ holder of 1,749 hugs in one hour. My arms fell off.
Of all things I liked books best. My father had a large library and whenever I could manage I tried to satisfy my passion for reading.
The Bible is one of the most genocidal books in history.
When I buy a new book, I always read the last page first, that way in case I die before I finish, I know how it ends. That, my friend, is a dark side.
So much of what I see reminds me of something I read in a book, when shouldn’t it be the other way around?
A man who finishes a book is always alone when he finishes it...
Reading is escape, and the opposite of escape.
And each book has to receive your best effort every single time. No slacking.
Mary Stewart will always be my goddess. I can pick up one of her early books – one I’ve read a dozen times – and still slide right into the story.
Anything worth anything can be found in books.
A writer never finds the time to write. A writer makes it. If you don’t have the drive, the discipline, and the desire, then you can have all the talent in the world, and you aren’t going to finish a book.
My fondest wish, I suppose, would be to die at the keyboard right after finishing a book, perhaps with a little time off to have some really good sex. It’s not, ‘Oh, thank God, this is book No. 250. I can die now.’
In the summer of 80, Silhouette bought my first book.