Some quotes on writing

'Any writer is in the position of the old storyteller in the market place who doesn't know who will stop and listen - his only interest really is in getting as many as possible to stay to the end and put a penny in the hat.'
Phillip Pullman

'As a type, authors are famous for the amount of time we waste. We change light bulbs, stare out of the window and congratulate ourselves if we have managed to turn out 800 words in a day.'
Alain de Botton

'That the stories themselves often feature hazard, hardship, cruelty and death is part of their external appeal. They expose us to danger at safe distance, rehearse us in endurance, fidelity and (eventually) reward.'
Gillian Reynolds, The Daily Telegraph, on a Radio 4 Programme, In Our Time, on why the Brothers Grimm collected folk stories.

'Writing a proper book takes a lot of time. It is a very lonely trade and, given the amount of time that must be spent on discovering the facts as well as communicating them, it is disproportionately badly paid. It is fantastically satisfying, and not unlike (I imagine) giving birth, when you hold the finished work in your hands for the first time.'
Simon Heffer, The Sunday Telegraph


Thanks to Writers' News September 2009 for the above quotes and to my doctors surgery for the 2 hour wait for giving me the time to read the magazine!! And it is only indigestion...........