Mark Kurlansky Quotes

I write what I'd like to read and just hope that, along the way, others might like to read them, too.

I don't want to walk in the middle. I want people to read what I write and feel strongly about it. If, at some point, whatever I am doing is failing to elicit a response, whether it's very positive or very negative, then I am going to stop doing it.

You always hope you'll surprise somebody with the work. If you write something human and appealing, the perfect reader could be anyone.

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.

Any writer worth the name is always getting into one thing or getting out of another thing.

I write what I'd like to read and just hope that, along the way, others might like to read them, too.

The first book you write because of the way it makes you feel. The second one you can't help but wonder how it's going to make the reader feel.

I really write for people.

My shorthand answer is that I try to write the kind of book that I would like to read. If I can make it clear and interesting and compelling to me, then I hope maybe it will be for the reader.

What excites me, what attracts me, what gets me up in the morning is telling the next story and getting it out in front of readers and hoping they'll love it too.

It's so easy, as a writer, to get stuck in your own head, to live in the little worlds you create. To forget that there are people out there reading your work, people who may be deeply affected by what you do, that you are writing not just for yourself, but for them.

You care a lot about these stories you're writing, and you hope that someone else will care, too.

I like to be read. That's most of what any writer could want.

If there is any secret to my success, I think it's that my characters are very real to me. I feel everything they feel, and therefore I think my readers care about them.

But, somewhere in there, I did have the thought that this really fits in with my thinking about what I wanted to do; with what has to be done by a writer in order to stay alive as a writer.

Mine is not a story to tell struggling writers.

There are as many routes to writing success as there are writers who got there. My advice, however, applies across the board: read widely, learn the craft by whatever means you can - workshops and writing programs are ideal, but even self-study can work - apply what you learn, and persevere.

Love is the answer to everything. It's the only reason to do anything. If you don't write stories you love, you'll never make it. If you don't write stories that other people love, you'll never make it.

The best ideas are those that really affect me emotionally - those are the ones you never forget. You think to yourself, 'I want to write that book', for years; those are the ideas that I love to work with, and 'The Bone Garden' was one of them.

How do we live the writer's life? There's only one simple answer: 'we write.'

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.

After a while, you start to realize that you should write a book you would want to read. I try to write a book I would enjoy.

Neophyte writers tend to believe that there is something magical about ideas and that if they can just get a hold of a good one, then their futures are ensured.

Fans always say they laughed and they cried while reading my books. And I tell them that I laughed and cried while writing them.

I've been writing stories since I was 12. 'Writer's Digest' was one of my writing teachers, actually.