Linda Lael Miller Quotes

The only way to learn writing is by writing. Talent, as charming as it sounds, amounts to no more than 12 per cent of the process. Work is 80 per cent. The remaining 8 per cent is 'luck' or 'zeitgeist' - in short, things that are not in our hands.

To write anything decent, it's hard. Anything you want to be good is hard.

I finished my first novel - it was around 300 pages long - when I was 16. Wrote one more before I got out of high school, then wrote the first Lincoln Perry novel when I was 19. It didn't sell, but I liked the character and I knew the world so I tried what was, in my mind, a sequel. Wrote that when I was 20, and that one made it.

With due apologies to Shakespeare, some people are born writers, some people achieve it after a lot of hard work, some people have a writing career thrust upon them. I am in that last group.

I said to Ruth Rendell, 'When you've written as many books as you have, it's easier.' She said, 'No dear, it gets harder'.

I think writing well takes a little bit of talent and an awful lot of work.

I'd never written a novel before, and I wrote a novel, and that turned out OK.

As a writer, I've always been somebody who's been productive and hustled hard.

There's many times this year I've sat back and thought, I'm making a living from making things up. It's the only skill I have so I've been really lucky.

I don't reckon there are many writers who start out really expecting writing to be an attainable occupation. Well, I didn't. It was a pipe dream.

Listen, I wrote 10 unsuccessful books before I broke through, so I'm looking all the time to keep my books fascinating. I want to write what people want to read, not push any message.

I was very fortunate that my first novel captivated the imaginations of so many readers who asked for a sequel. After that, one book led to another as I discovered other facets to my characters I wanted to investigate further.

I thought I could write. So it was my intention to start off as a writer. But I wasn't really great at delivering the word at the end of the day.

I've been writing since I was really young, so I considered myself a writer for a really long time.

For the novels I wrote before selling anything, I didn't outline much. I had a vague idea of the story.

Being a professional writer is not an easy way to make a living.

I've figured out in the course of my life that the one thing I'm good at doing is writing books, and it would be crazy to trade that in for something else.

I'm still surprised to be an author. I wonder what I'll write next?

I've been writing full-time since 1978.

For a long time now I have tried simply to write the best I can. Sometimes I have good luck and write better than I can.

Honestly, I feel pretty awed anytime I meet just about any writer. I get how hard it is to write and make a living from it, but there's also this almost magical force you need to tap into, and I'm amazed by anyone who can do it.

Write a million words before thinking about getting published.

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.

All my books were easy to write - doesn't it show?

I'm very lucky. I actually like screenwriting. I rarely feel a sense of doom going to my desk.