PHYLLIS A. WHITNEY

I talk to myself on paper about my characters - sometimes writing in first person... I keep lists of unanswered questions that I can always turn to in order to get myself going.

Short of throwing away all television sets, I really don't know what we can do about writing.

You must want to enough. Enough to take all the rejections, enough to pay the price of disappointment and discouragement while you are learning.

Nobody wanted me. I just kept writing books and learning my craft. Most writers aren't very good in the beginning.

Reading has always been a major part of my life. It has broadened my world and taken me to places I would otherwise have never seen. Now that I am a hundred years old (this September) it still takes me to the outside world I can no longer visit.

One of the wonderful things about being ALIVE is that it's never too late.

There's only one good reason to be a writer-we can't help it! We'd all like to be rich, famous and successful, but if those are our goals, we're off on a wrong foot...I just wanted to earn enough money so I could work at home on my writing.

But emotion cannot be buried by words, though it can be aroused by them.

It's hard to come up with a 'quote' about myself. Perhaps I could say that most of my writing has been concerned with understanding between people. Whether of different races, or religions, or even in the same family I tried in my books... to deal with the subject of understanding the other fellow.

I didn't learn to drive until I was 65 and my husband was seriously ill.

I offer optimism. All my books have happy endings. I don't see any point in letting my readers down at the end. I'm an optimist - people feel that in my books.

I wish I could think of a suitable name for the kind of writing I do.

I've always done what I wanted to do.

People have talents that are different. Where does the creative flow come from - inside us or from a higher power? I don't ask any questions. I just write it down.

I tell a good story.

I didn't learn to drive until I was 65 and my husband was seriously ill.

I always want to live long enough to finish the book I'm working on and see it published. But then I start another book before the previous one is in the stores, so I always have a reason to go on.

Getting the ideas are a struggle for me. I'm doing better now that I use the concentration tapes. More unusual ideas.

I like to write about beautiful places, interesting places to me.

The girls in my books are out solving their own problems.

A writer is what I am.

One of the wonderful things about being ALIVE is that it's never too late.

Short of throwing away all television sets, I really don't know what we can do about writing.

But emotion cannot be buried by words, though it can be aroused by them.

I talk to myself on paper about my characters - sometimes writing in first person... I keep lists of unanswered questions that I can always turn to in order to get myself going.

It's hard to come up with a 'quote' about myself. Perhaps I could say that most of my writing has been concerned with understanding between people. Whether of different races, or religions, or even in the same family I tried in my books... to deal with the subject of understanding the other fellow.

A map is not a journey.

You must want to enough. Enough to take all the rejections, enough to pay the price of disappointment and discouragement while you are learning.

There's only one good reason to be a writer-we can't help it! We'd all like to be rich, famous and successful, but if those are our goals, we're off on a wrong foot...I just wanted to earn enough money so I could work at home on my writing.

Good stories are not written. They are rewritten.

Nobody wanted me. I just kept writing books and learning my craft. Most writers aren't very good in the beginning.

Reading has always been a major part of my life. It has broadened my world and taken me to places I would otherwise have never seen. Now that I am a hundred years old (this September) it still takes me to the outside world I can no longer visit.

A good book isn't written, it's rewritten.