Thought for the Day

“You cannot swim for new horizons until you have courage to lose sight of the shore.”

~ William Faulkner, author

Thought for the Day

"Social media gives legions of idiots the right to speak when they once only spoke at a bar after a glass of wine, without harming the community... but now they have the same right to speak as a Nobel Prize winner. It's the invasion of the idiots."

~ Umberto Eco, author

Thought for the Day

"That's the thing about writing. It's all doubt. Doubts about plot, story, character etc, let in every other doubt, the real doubts, about yourself, your very self."

~ Russell T. Davies

Thought for the Day

"How To Be a Writer, #29291:

When the sun shines, write sunshine.

When it rains, write rain.

When in doubt, drink tea."

~ Joanne Harris, author

Thought for the Day

"I usually have a vague idea of what the ending will be, but I never plan out how I'm going to get there; the fun part is finding out what happens along the way. And quite often the ending changes once I work out what the story is all about."

~ Philip Reeve

Thought for the Day

“Generally speaking, I do not think that one should ever take another person's advice in the things of life that really matter, but follow the dictates of the still small something in one's innermost self.”

~ Rosemary Sutcliff

Thought for the Day

"You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me."

~ C. S. Lewis

Thought for the Day

“I opened a book and in I strode. Now nobody can find me. I've left my chair, my house, my road, My town and my world behind me."

~ Julia Donaldson

Thought for the Day

"Some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again."

~ C. S. Lewis

Thought for the Day

“I do not think that you can be changing the end of a song or a story like that, as though it were quite separate from the rest. I think the end of a story is part of it from the beginning.”

~ Rosemary Sutcliff

Thought for the Day

"You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream."

~ C. S. Lewis

Thought for the Day

"If you want to live by your writing, you have to make it wonderful, absolutely relevant and exactly what millions of people are desperate to read. No one ever said that was easy."

~ Carmen Reid, author

Thought for the Day

"How to be a writer:
First, plant the tree on which the leaves of your book will be printed.
Next, hatch the bird from whose quill your ink will flow.
Water the tree.
Feed the bird.
Learn the patience of things that grow and the joy of things that sing.
Make tea: you've got time."

~ Joanne Harris, author

Thought for the Day

"Measures of success change depending who we talk to – my accountant probably doesn't care that my book has won awards, but I know my publisher does."

~ Damian Barr, writer

Thought for the Day

"There is no shame in having another job: Kurt Vonnegut managed a car dealership and Harper Lee was a travel agent. But, yes, it bewilders and depresses me that even the crappiest footballer is paid more than our finest literary novelists."

~ Damian Barr, writer

Thought for the Day

"People ask why I became a writer, and it's because I once went to a travelling carnival and this guy called Mr Electrico knighted me with a flaming sword and yelled, 'Live forever!' and when I woke up the next day I was a writer."

~ David M Barnett, author

Thought for the Day

"I think that the moment at which I'm happiest in my life is when I'm writing a book, and I can feel it's working."

~ Salman Rushdie

Thought for the Day

"Children's books are important. Important economically (Harry Potter is worth more than most industries). Important culturally (name a better expression of our best side than the Paddington movies). But most of all they are important to our children."

~ Frank Cottrell-Boyce

Thought for the Day

"But words are things, and a small drop of ink,
Falling, like dew, upon a thought produces
That which makes thousands, perhaps millions think."

~ Lord Byron

Thought for the Day

"It still rankles that the short story I wrote for my mock O Levels was downgraded from an A to a C because, 'it is too original, which means you have copied it from somewhere'."

~ Neil Gaiman