Sara Paretsky Quotes

I started blogging in 2006 when I had sold my first novel but it had not yet been published, in those anxious months in between while I learned the whole process.

Writing is a intensely personal activity. I can pen down my best thoughts when I'm alone. But when one is elevated into the stature of an author, you have to think about your books in terms of their business angle.

In the summer of '80, Silhouette bought my first book.

My first YA novel, not many people have read. It's a fickle business. There's a degree of timing and luck involved.

I started out as a novelist and wrote several novels before deciding to publish one, and I fully intend to go back to the form.

My literary career kicked off in 1956 when, as a resident of Swansea, South Wales, I published my first novel, 'Lucky Jim.'

I want to write a best-selling book.

I want to be an author.

For a lot of people, becoming an author is a change in occupation... they are coming from something that totally has nothing to do with this. If they are expecting to come into a room full of people praising them, then they are in the wrong place.

I sold my very first novel when I was 24 or 25 years old.

If you're going to write a book that might, in its very best accidental career, sell 30,000 copies, you've got to have a day job.

The idea is to become a best-selling author first and then the rest of my books will be slam dunks.

As a writer, you write the book, you give it to your editor, it's copy edited, it's published, it's thrown out there, and then there's a response.

As long as I can remember, I wanted to be a writer.

I sold my first short story while I was home on maternity leave, then began working on novels. Since I was reading and enjoying romance novels at the time, the first two unpublished manuscripts I wrote were both romances. I sold my third novel, 'Call After Midnight,' to Harlequin Intrigue after submitting it unagented.

I realized early on that being an author is a hugely misunderstood job. Because there are no pay grades and very little structure, people make interesting assumptions about the profession.

In the end, I want to spend my 60s writing bonkbusters like Jilly Cooper.

I had a novel in the back of my mind when I won an Ian St James story competition in 1993. At the award ceremony an agent asked me if I was writing a novel. I showed her four or five chapters of what would become 'Behind the Scenes at the Museum' and to my surprise she auctioned them off.

I've been associated with Macmillan for over 45 years. I'd like to thank them for their continued commitment to my backlist and I look forward to continuing to work with them as they publish my next novel, 'Vicious Circle' in 2013.

I was directed because I knew I wanted to be a novelist, but I didn't have a very good job or a way of getting published. I found those years to be among the most difficult of my life.

I'm surviving and developing as a writer. I don't know what brings you to mass attention in terms of sales. But I've gotten more and more comfortable with it. Of course if that changes, I'll be comfortable with that. All I can do is write the best books I can.

I'm not sure if you can strive your way into a career as a novelist. You have to write books; there are no short cuts.

When I started writing, I just hoped for a nice little paperback series.

I know very well that one cannot become an author by just writing a book.

I started writing 'The Lobster Kings' the day after I sold my first novel, 'Touch.'