Author Surprise Quotes

I cranked out a book. I didn't expect it to do much, but it's sold 80,000 copies.

I had no idea that 'Less Than Zero' was going to be read by anyone outside of Los Angeles, and it's - believe me, as the writer of the book I'm somewhat amused and intrigued by the idea that 25 years later it's still out and people are still reading it.

I'm always surprised when large numbers of people buy my books.

I never expected my writing to become as popular as it did.

When I first began to write fiction, I didn't think I was a comic writer; I thought I was a serious writer. I was surprised when the first novel I wrote was regarded as a funny novel.

'Ancillary Sword' picked up the Locus and the BSFA, which surprised the heck out of me.

When I wrote 'Lord of the Flies' - I had no idea it would even get published.

'The One-Eyed Man' is a novel that was one I never intended to write.

I am astonished, when I pause to think about it, to discover myself to be an author of humorous novels for children. Or an author at all. I had a childhood much like everyone else's. What went wrong?

What surprised me about 'The Casual Vacancy' was not just how good it was, but the particular way in which it was good.

Dickens is always full of surprises.

[It] was written and sold. I knew it was a strong story because I cared about it and believed in it. I had no idea that it would have the effect it had on the audience. While most people ignored it, of course, and continue to live full and happy lives without reading it or anything else by me, there was still a surprisingly large group who responded to the story with some fervency.

I don't think that I had any idea that 'Fear of Flying' would become a part of the culture. I had no idea that it would go all over the world and be published in Chinese and Serbo-Croat and so on.

Sometimes reactions can be quite surprising: readers like things that you, the author, feel you've barely gotten away with; or they dislike one of the parts you secretly think is one of your little gems.