Jim Butcher Quotes

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.

Once I finished 'Eileen,' I wanted to write more novels. I don't see myself stopping any time soon.

I still write the occasional short story, and poked at a novel once, but it's just not what I want to do.

When I'm working on one book, part of my imagination is thinking ahead to the next one.

I don't aspire to direct like many actors. I would aspire most likely to do some writing, but I haven't had a chance to do that.

When I went to college I took a creative writing class and decided in a week to be a writer.

Every 'Observer' writer wants to be a novelist.

I knew that I wanted to be a writer even before I knew exactly what being a writer entailed.

Read good books. Read bad books - and figure out why you don't like them. Then don't do it when you write. If you are a science fiction or fantasy writer, going to conventions and attending panels is very useful.

My priority is my books, at least at this point. What I have to do is write the narrative of this time.

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.

Everyone thinks they're going to write one book of poems or one novel.

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

When I was eight years old, I wrote a paragraph-long short story about a goat on my mother's hundred-pound, black-and-white-screen laptop. The story came about largely because I liked the way the word 'goat' looked on the page, but I decided then and there that I wanted to be a writer. That desire never changed.

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

I will write another book if I feel like it.

Publishing a short story can sometimes feel like shouting into the dark... your words come out, and then nothing... but I don't think that's why I tend to write novels rather than stories.

I want to do some fiction writing, I've had some pretty good luck with short stories, I'd like to do a couple of larger things.

I really do believe some people are naturally novelists and some people are short story writers. For me, when I was in middle school or high school, I started with novels.

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.

SOON was the first novel where I used a rough outline. Usually I have characters and an idea and write as a process of discovery. Like working without a net.

I always knew that I was going to be a writer. There was no question in my mind about that.

You want to be a writer, don't know how or when? Find a quiet place, use a humble pen.

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

It's not that I ever sat down and outlined a trilogy, but I always have a sense of what size an idea is when I start it.