While working on my first five books, I kept wishing I was writing a novel. I thought until you wrote a novel, you weren’t taken seriously as a writer. It used to trouble me a lot, but nothing troubles me now, and besides, there has been a change. I think short stories are taken more seriously now than they were.
Alice MunroHonestly, I think we should be delighted people still want to read, be it on a Kindle or a Nook or whatever the latest device is.
J. K. RowlingI always rewrite each day up to the point where I stopped. When it is all finished, naturally you go over it. You get another chance to correct and rewrite when someone else types it, and you see it clean in type. The last chance is in the proofs. You’re grateful for these different chances.
Ernest HemingwayI want my books sold on airport bookstalls.
Stephen HawkingYour manuscript is both good and original; but the part that is good is not original, and the part that is original is not good.
Samuel JohnsonDigital reading will completely take over. It’s lightweight and it’s fantastic for sharing. Over time it will take over.
Bill GatesI wanted to be an editor or a journalist, I wasn’t really interested in being an entrepreneur, but I soon found I had to become an entrepreneur in order to keep my magazine going.
Richard BransonWith a computer, you make your changes on the screen and then you print out a clean copy. With a typewriter, you can’t get a clean manuscript unless you start again from scratch. It’s an incredibly tedious process.
Paul AusterThe first scholarly edition of Magna Carta was published by the eminent jurist William Blackstone. It was not an easy task. There was no good text available.
Noam ChomskyPublishers see free downloads as threatening the sales of the book.
Paulo CoelhoBefore printing was discovered, a century was equal to a thousand years.
Henry David ThoreauOften I sort of work up and down the manuscript. I sometimes used to go ahead of myself to see what was going to happen next, to make certain it fits what was going to be happening soon.
Terry PratchettElectronic books are junk.
Ray BradburyThe three great elements of modern civilization, Gun powder, Printing, and the Protestant religion.
Thomas Carlyle‚The New Yorker‘ was really my first experience with serious editing. Previously, I’d more or less just had copyediting with a few suggestions – not much.
Alice Munro