The best fame is a writer's fame. It's enough to get a table at a good restaurant, but not enough to get you interrupted when you eat.

Fancourt can't write women,' said Nina dismissively. 'He tries but he can't do it. His women are all temper, tits and tampons.

Basically, writers write because they have something to say...Everyone has a story in them, writers merely decide to share it with the world...

The hard necessity of bringing the judge on the bench down into the dock has been the peculiar responsibility of the writer in all ages of man.

The writer has little control over personal temperament, none over historical moment, and is only partly in charge of his or her own aesthetic.

Even those who write against fame wish for the fame of having written well, and those who read their works desire the fame of having read them.

Every author really wants to have letters printed in the paper. Unable to make the grade, he drops down a rung of the ladder and writes novels.

The fact of the matter is that readers and audiences are never blank slates: individuals see in a work whatever they need to see at that moment.

Crime writers, I've noticed, can be jumpy. They live in a world where there are murderers on the loose and they haven't been caught yet!

I know it's difficult in the beginning. But, listen. If you have the impulse to write, do yourself a favor, do the world a favor, and write.

We need to stop trying to get attention by seeing who can scream and cry the loudest. Write something worth reading and your voice will be heard.

In my view, a writer is a writer because even when there is no hope, even when nothing you do shows any sign of promise, you keep writing anyway.

If you have a story inside you but don't know where to start, look within and write from the heart, for the heart will never steer you wrong.

Are writers the torchbearers of humanity? It’s a romantic idea, but it’s complete rubbish. We writers are the crocodiles in the river.

Many existing top 20 Scottish writers have flourished in part because of good turns done by institutions, arts community, libraries and bookshops.