Inspiration comes from the world around me. I'm an inveterate eavesdropper.
​Jenny Nimmo
Author of Midnight for Charlie Bone
Born January 15, 1944

Aspiring writers should read the entire canon of literature that precedes them, back to the Greeks, up to the current issue of The Paris Review.
​William Kennedy
Author of Ironweed
Born January 15, 1928

I see the author as the person who has written; the writer, the one involved in the process of writing. And they're not necessarily friends. The writer is the one I want to reinforce; the author would just feed on the reviews—so I'm in favour of starving him.
​Edward St. Aubyn
Author of The Patrick Melrose Novels
Born January 14, 1960

When we abolish the slavery of half of humanity, together with the whole system of hypocrisy that it implies, the “division” of humanity will reveal its genuine significance and the human couple will find its true form.
​Simone de Beauvoir
Author of The Second Sex
Born January 9, 1908

The poetry of Walt Whitman. I can return again and again to these magnificent poems and still get pleasure from reading them.
​Robert Littell
Author of Legends
Born January 8, 1935

Women forget all those things they don’t want to remember, and remember everything they don’t want to forget. The dream is the truth. Then they act and do things accordingly.
​Zora Neale Hurston
Author of Mules and Men
Born January 7, 1891

It's incumbent on good public servants to maintain their voices and originality of thinking.
​Ronan Farrow
American Journalist
Born December 19, 1987

Dorothy L. Sayers is absolutely my favorite. The reason she stands above Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh, and Margery Allingham is because she was so subtly aware of the lot and trials of women of her decade.
​Lucy Worsley
Author of A Very British Murder: The Story of a National Obsession
​Born December 18, 1973

For the judging of contemporary literature the only test is one's personal taste. If you much like a new book, you must call it literature even though you find no other soul to agree with you, and if you dislike a book you must declare that it is not literature though a million voices should shout you that you are wrong. The ultimate decision will be made by Time.
​Ford Madox Ford
​Author of The Good Soldier
Born December 17, 1873 

Be regular and orderly in your life, so that you may be violent and original in your work.
​Gustave Flaubert
Author of Sentimental Education
Born December 12, 1821

One of the reasons I'm reluctant to start a novel is it's such an obsessive activity. You get in there, you don't know anything else while you're in there. And that's quite a sacrifice to make, especially for us old guys where time is kind of short. You don't want to disappear for a year; you want to be outdoors.
​Thomas McGuane
Author of Gallatin Canyon
Born December 11, 1939

The way I live now is that I only write, which means that I'm very poor but very happy. Everything in my life is the way I want it to be. 
Helen Oyeyemi
Author of Peaces
Born December 10, 1984

Be not afraid of discomfort. If you can't put yourself in a situation where you are uncomfortable, then you will never grow. You will never change. You'll never learn.
​Jason Reynolds
Author of Long Way Down
Born December 6, 1983

 Writers are always selling somebody out.
​Joan Didion
Author of Slouching Towards Bethlehem
Born December 5, 1934

In a free world there is, alas, more common crime than in a dictatorial system.
​Barbara Amiel, Canadian Journalist
Author of Friends and Enemies: A Memoir
Born December 4, 1940

It's a good thing that columnists don't make homosexuality their last taboo anymore. But I wish the columnists themselves would come out too.
​Michael Musto
Author of Fork on the Left, Knife in the Back
Born December 3, 1955

Prizes aren’t love. Because people who never met you can’t love you. The slots for winners are already set, from here until Judgment Day. They know the kind of poet who’s going to win, and if you happen to fit the slot, then bully for you! It’s like fitting a hand-me-down suit. It’s luck, not love. Not that it isn’t nice to have luck. [From  Less.]
Andrew Sean Greer
Author of Less
Born November 21, 1970

Corruption is a cancer: a cancer that eats away at a citizen's faith in democracy, diminishes the instinct for innovation and creativity; already-tight national budgets, crowding out important national investments. It wastes the talent of entire generations. It scares away investments and jobs.
​President Joe Biden
Author of Promises to Keep
Born November 20, 1942

Sometimes there is such beauty in awkwardness.
​Ruta Sepetys
Author of I Must Betray You
Born November 19, 1967

When you build your own brand, people will still return your phone calls regardless of the call letters or where you actually work, because they now know you and they trust you in what you have to say and what you're doing. That, to me, is the most important aspect when it comes to building your brand.
​Roland Martin
Author of White Fear: How the Browning of America Is Making White Folks Lose Their Minds
Born November 14, 1968

I am the American Dream. I am the epitome of what the American Dream basically said. It said you could come from anywhere and be anything you want in this country. That's exactly what I've done.
​Whoopi Goldberg
Author of Bits and Pieces: My Mother, My Brother, and Me
Born November 13, 1955

The idea that women are innately gentle is a fantasy, and a historically recent one. Kali, the Hindu goddess of destruction, is depicted as wreathed in male human skulls; the cruel entertainments of the Romans drew audiences as female as they were male; Boudicca led her British troops bloodily into battle.
​Naomi Wolf
Author of The End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot
Born November 12, 1962

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. 
Guy Gavriel Kay
Author of A Brightness Long Ago
Born November 7, 1954

At work, you're replaceable . . . but as a parent, you're irreplaceable.
​Maria Shriver
Author of I've Been Thinking . . . 
Born November 6, 1955

Imagination is the only key to the future. Without it none exists—with it all things are possible.
​Ida Tarbell
Author of The History of the Standard Oil Company
Born November 5, 1857