The first sentence of every novel should be: Trust me, this will take time but there is order here, very faint, very human. Meander if you want to get to town.
​Michael Ondaatje
Author of Divisadero
Born September 12, 1943

Some studies show that women can be better money managers than men because they tend to be more conservative and do their homework. Men tend to take more risks without the research.
​Maria Bartiromo, Journalist
Born September 11, 1967

The world where the owl is endlessly hungry and endlessly on the hunt is the world in which I live too.
Mary Oliver, Poet
Author of Dog Songs
Born September 10, 1935

A WRITER'S WIT
Depending on where I am in the process, sometimes I have a page count and sometimes I don’t. Sometimes I have an hour count; sometimes I’m just happy to string a few words together. I do keep pretty rigorous hours, because otherwise you never get anything done.
​Alice Sebold
Author of The Lovely Bones
Born September 6, 1963

I can’t understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I’m frightened of the old ones.
​John Cage, Composer and Music Theorist
"Concert for Piano and Orchestra"
Born September 5, 1912

If we had been allowed to participate in the vital processes of America’s national growth, what would have been the textures of our lives, the pattern of our traditions, the routine of our customs, the state of our arts, the code of our laws, the function of our government! . . . We black folk say that America would have been stronger and greater.
​Richard Wright
Author of Native Son
Born September 4, 1908

In the life of each of us, I said to myself, there is a place remote and islanded, and given to endless regret or secret happiness. 
​Sarah Orne Jewett
Author of  The Country of the Pointed Firs, 15
Born September 3, 1849

A WRITER'S WIT
The Dawes Act . . . destroyed the Indian land base. Indian lands in 1887 totaled 154 million acres. When the law was repealed in 1934, Indian lands totaled about 48 million acres, a reduction of 70 percent over the lifetime of the measure.
Paul H. Carlson
Author of ​The Plains Indians
Born August 30, 1940

Sometimes, a flame can be utterly extinguished. Sometimes, a flame can shrink and waver, but sometimes a flame refuses to go out. It flares up from the faintest ember to illuminate the darkness, to burn in spite of overwhelming odds.
​Karen Hesse
Author of Out of the Dust
Born August 29, 1952

If you understand hallucination and illusion, you don't blindly follow any leader. You must know if the person is sane or insane, over the abyss.
​Marguerite Young
Author of Angel in the Forest
​Born August 28, 1908
​[Some sources say Aug. 26.]

On the old highway maps of America, the main routes were red and the back roads blue. Now even the colors are changing. But in those brevities just before dawn and a little after dark—times neither day nor night—the old roads return to the sky some of its color. Then, in truth, they cast a mysterious shadow of blue, and it’s that time when the pull of the blue highway is strongest, when the open road is a beckoning, a strangeness, a place where a man can lose himself. 
William Least Heat-Moon
​Author of Blue Highways
Born August 27, 1939

A WRITER'S WIT
What’s happening with feminism in general is I think that, as a woman, you're not limited to being one thing or the other. You can be feminine and sexy and beautiful and hot and funny.
​Erin Foster, TV Writer
The New Normal
​Born August 23, 1982

You should write because you love the shape of stories and sentences and the creation of different words on a page. Writing comes from reading, and reading is the finest teacher of how to write.
​Annie Proulx
Author of Barkskins
​Born August 22, 1935

A good book ought to bring out lots of different responses from those that read it—none of them pre-planned, and all of them very personal. Whatever they take away from the reading of the book is valuable.
Sharon M. Draper
Author of Out of My Heart
Born August 21, 1948

Growing up with three brothers and three sisters, I was the storyteller of the family . . . what my mother called “The Liar.” 
​James Rollins
Author of Map of Bones
Born August 20, 1961

A WRITER'S WIT
I can honestly say I feel like I have the best job in the world! At the moment I'm writing the next book, and every time I sit down to start a new Tom Gates book it's really exciting to think, “What can I do now?”
Liz Pichon
Author of The Brilliant World of Tom Gates
​Born August 16, 1963

The law is not a “light” for you or any man to see by; the law is not an instrument of any kind. The law is a causeway upon which, so long as he keeps to it, a citizen may walk safely.
​Robert Bolt, Playwright
Author of A Man for All Seasons
Born August 15, 1924

I’ve always believed that there are funny people everywhere, but they’re just not comedians. In fact, some of my best comedic inspirations were not professional entertainers.
​Steve Martin, Comedian
Author of Born Standing Up
Born August 14, 1945

I don’t know how others reconcile what happened before with what happens now. For me, the past is a cool, dark pond in which I will always stand partially submerged. That’s just the way it is.
​Kate Walbert
Author of A Short History of Women
Born August 13, 1961

A WRITER'S WIT
​Lie on the bridge and watch the water flowing past. Or run, or wade through the swamp in your red boots. Or roll yourself up and listen to the rain falling on the roof. It's very easy to enjoy yourself.
Tove Janssan
Author of The Summer Book
​Born August 9, 1914

What society judged was not the severity of the disease [AIDS] but the social acceptability of the individuals affected with it . . .
​Randy Shilts
Author of And the Band Played On
Born August 8, 1951

Early in my career, I decided not to do sequels. I know that children enjoy them, but I valued the feeling that this was the only time I would write about these characters. I felt it gave me an added incentive to do my best by them, to tell readers everything I knew, to hold nothing back.
​Betsy Byars
Author of Summer of the Swans
​Born August 7, 1928

My favorite days were when I had a cold and could stay home from school and draw all day long.
​Barbara Cooney
Author of Ox-Cart Man
​Born August 6, 1917

A WRITER'S WIT
My life, my real life, was in danger, and not from anything other people might do but from the hatred I carried in my own heart.
James Baldwin 
Author of Another Country
Born August 2, 1924

Though public libraries have an imposing air, and doubtless contain invaluable volumes, yet, somehow, the books that prove most agreeable, grateful, and companionable, are those we pick up by chance here and there: those which seem put into our hands by Providence; those which pretend to little, but abound in much.
​Herman Melville
Author of Moby Dick
Born August 1, 1819