Rachel Kushner Quotes

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

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.

As a writer, I'm always aware of the fact that there are so many books out there.

When people talk about being a writer, the first words that come to mind are glamour and artistic parties like Charles Dickens used to mix cocktails for.

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.

How lucky am I? Quite often I speak at book festivals, and people ask me how I got published. There's people who have been working on a book for as long as ten years, and I feel like such a cow.

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.

People generally don't recognize how long it takes to conceive, publish, and write a book.

It's easy to get published once you have written a really good book and the hard part, 99 percent of what you need to worry about, is really finishing it.

A whole bunch of agents and editors looked at my stories, and they all said, in effect, 'You're a pretty good writer and you should probably get these published; when you grow up and write a novel, get in touch.'

Being a novelist is hard for anyone - male or female. You don't get to quit your day job.

I had a very realistic expectation of the level of success that it was possible to attain writing romance novels.

As an author, I love to know my book sells really well.

I always grew up with the idea that in order to be a successful writer, I should have a book published.

I have to be honest about this: I wouldn't tell a lot of kids to go and be writers. It's a tough, tough business. It's not a business. It's more like a tough road. It's a really tough road.

It is difficult to survive as an author in Sweden, so for commercial success, it is good idea to write crime, get yourself translated, and live happily ever after.

I have been incredibly lucky with my novels but I had absolutely no idea if anyone would be interested in a cookbook. So I started to think about self-publishing.

I've written since I was 10 years old, so I guess I'm self-taught. I've had some luck along the way, I must admit, and I've worked hard.

What I enjoy about reviewing and writing for newspapers and periodicals is simply the chance to talk about all kinds of books and lots of them.

You become a great writer by writing.

My first book, 'The Age of Wire and String,' came out in 1995, and it was hardly reviewed at all.

Not until my middle thirties did I consider myself a novelist.

Publishing can be tough. It has the ability to kill dreams.

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

No one wants a masterpiece knocking around when your own book is looking for attention.