Authors Sayings and Quotes

Below you will find our collection of inspirational, wise, and humorous old authors quotes, authors sayings, and authors proverbs, collected over the years from a variety of sources.

When male authors write love stories, the heroine tends to end up dead. Susan Elizabeth Phillips
The great authors were great readers, and one way to understand them is to read the books they read. Mortimer Adler
There are two classes of authors: the one write the history of their times, the other their biography. Henry David Thoreau
Before publishers' blurbs were invented, authors had to make their reputations by writing. Laurence J. Peter
Authors and uncaptured criminals are the only people free from routine. Vachel Lindsay
The reciprocal civility of authors is one of the most risible scenes in the farce of life. Samuel Johnson
The great authors share their souls with us — literally. Ursula K. Le Guin
All great authors are seers. George Henry Lewes
Grave authors say, and witty poets sing, That honest wedlock is a glorious thing. Alexander Pope
There are two kinds of authors - subjective and objective. Introverts are more inward looking. Ruskin Bond
Authors are ordinary people who usually start to live apart, in the imagination, because they dont fit in with normal, healthy people. Henry Williamson
Authors are sometimes like tomcats: They distrust all the other toms but they are kind to kittens. Malcolm Cowley
Different authors write different ways, have different relationships with their audiences, and those are all legitimate. John Green
As long as thriller authors teach us about our world, they'll be relevant. David Morrell
Authors must not, like Chinese soldiers, expect to win victories by turning somersets in the air. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Authors do not choose a story to write, the story chooses us. Richard Denney
Authors are like cattle going to a fair: those of the same field can never move on without butting one another. Walter Savage Landor
Authors, like coins, grow dear as they grow old: It is the rust we value, not the gold. Alexander Pope
Few sensible authors are happy discussing the creative process--it is, after all, black magic. Edward Albee
The trouble is when people read about authors, they don't feel compelled to read the authors' work. Donna Tartt
Authors like cats because they are such quiet, lovable, wise creatures, and cats like authors for the same reasons. Robertson Davies
Authors in general don't have a lot of money, and lawsuits are expensive. James D. Macdonald
Let us now peruse our ancient authors, for out of the old fields must come the new corn. Edward Coke
The sacred-souls of authors are displayed in the beauty of their books. Lailah Gifty Akita
Many contemporary authors drink more than they write. Maxim Gorky
Most authors have one idea per book. Shakespeare had two per sentence. Lauren Hutton
Young authors give their brains much exercise and little food. Joseph Joubert
Authors from whom others steal should not complain, but rejoice. Where there is no game there are no poachers. Marie Ebner-Eschenbach
All authors to their own defects are blind. John Dryden
View other authors as your allies rather than your competition. Shannon Love
After all, it is a common weakness of young authors to put too much into their papers. Ronald Fisher
Good authors, too, who once knew better words now only use four-letter words writing prose... anything goes. Cole Porter
The authors of book reviews would consider themselves dishonored were they to mention, as they should, the subject of the book. Louis Aragon
Those authors who would find many readers, must endeavour to please while they instruct. Samuel Johnson
Authors do not supply imaginations, they expect their readers to have their own, and to use it. Nella Larsen
Those authors who appear sometimes to forget they are writers, and remember they are men, will be our favorites. Benjamin Disraeli
The wittiest authors evoke a barely perceptible smile. Friedrich Nietzsche
Authors always take rejection badly. They equate it with infanticide. P. D. James
It is impossible for authors to discover beauties in one another's works; they have eyes only for spots and blemishes. Joseph Addison
The latest authors, like the most ancient, strove to subordinate the phenomena of nature to the laws of mathematics. Isaac Newton
Stealing from one author is plagiarism; from many authors, research. Walter Moers
Great editors do not discover nor produce great authors; great authors create and produce great publishers. John Farrar
We ourselve are the authors of almost all our woes and griefs, of which we so unreasonably complain. Giacomo Casanova
Best selling authors are always worth listening to, even if you choose to ignore their advice. Michael Dirda
Few authors are so interesting as their work - they generally reserve their wit or trenchant sarcasm for their books. Ethel Brilliana Tweedie
The faults of great authors are generally excellences carried to an excess. Samuel Taylor Coleridge
We are the authors of our own fate-we write it each day with every one of our actions. Félix José Palma
Authors hide their big thefts by putting small ones between quotation marks. Paul Eldridge
Authors and lovers always suffer some infatuation, from which only absence can set them free. Samuel Johnson
Authors are magpies, echoing each other's words and seizing avidly on anything that glitters. Bergen Evans