Jean Hanff Korelitz Quotes

Every 'Observer' writer wants to be a novelist.

Once I decided to write, to be published, I knew it would happen.

Some editors are failed writers, but so are most writers.

I wanted to be a novelist from a very early age - 11 or 12 - but I don't think I ever thought I would write historical fiction. I never thought I might write academic history because I simply wasn't good enough!

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.

When I was young, I wrote everything, and I thought I would be an all around writer, that I would write everything.

I never really knew I wanted to 'be' a writer, but I was always writing from a very young age. It became more conscious as an ideal when I was in my twenties.

I'd always wanted to write books ever since I was a kid.

I was writing from the time I was 12 years old, but I originally wanted to be a novelist.

The idea of being a novelist is really romantic, but it's kind of the same as being president of the United States - it's not gonna happen.

My primary ambition is to be a fiction writer... Being a critic wasn't an aspiration of mine.

I wanted to be a literary writer, so I wrote story after story and sent them to 'The New Yorker.'

I'm a successful novelist, and I've been a lucky one, so I don't want to cry the poor mouth. Writing has never been easy.

As a young, ambitious novelist, writing for kids never crossed my mind.

I wanted to be a novelist for so long.

Well I guess the plan was to write poetry and publish books and make a living from writing poetry. That was a pretty ambitious plan I guess.

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.

When I say that basically writing is a hard hustle, I don't mean that it is a bad life, if one can get away with it. It's the miracle of miracles to make a living by the typer.

I don't think there was a time I ever thought of myself as anything but a writer. I thought I was going to be the next Toni Morrison.

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.

I've wanted to be an author as long as I can remember. English was always my favorite subject at school, so why I went on to do a degree in French is anyone's guess.

A fortunate author can write maybe twelve novels in his lifetime.

From the moment I wrote 'Leaf Storm' I realized I wanted to be a writer and that nobody could stop me and that the only thing left for me to do was to try to be the best writer in the world.

All my friends who wanted to write had got nowhere trying to write the great European novel. So I deliberately steered clear of that and set out to write something story-led.

When I settled to writing seriously, which would be in my 30s, I did expect to be published eventually, but my aspirations weren't very high. A published book and a few appreciative readers was my idea of heaven.