They taught me that inhibitions would kill me. Hit early, hit hard. Kill with the first blow. Get your retaliation in first. Cheat. The gentlemen who behaved decently weren’t there to train anybody. They were already dead. - Lee Child

Hit early, hit hard. Kill with the first blow. Get your retaliation in first. - Lee Child

The weird thing about houses is that they almost always look like nothing is happening inside of them, even though they contain most of our lives. I wondered if that was sort of the point of architecture. - John Green

One of my challenges [as a writer] is to make sure that I'm giving the reader details that the character cares about rather than details that I care about. I’d say that's key to world-building. - Jessica Andersen

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. - Arthur C Clarke

Though in this genre we write about the fantastic, the stories work best when there is solid grounding in our world. - Brandon Sanderson

All readers come to fiction as willing accomplices to your lies. Such is the basic goodwill contract made the moment we pick up a work of fiction. - Steve Almond, WD

Don’t use adjectives which merely tell us how you want us to feel about the thing you are describing. I mean, instead of telling us a thing was “terrible,” describe it so that we’ll be terrified. Don’t say it was “delightful”; make us say “delightful” when we’ve read the description. - CS Lewis

I do not over-intellectualize the production process. I try to keep it simple: Tell the damned story. - Tom Clancy

“We will speak for the books.""Like the Lorax?""The Lorax speaks for the trees.""Books are made out of paper.”“Paper is made out of trees.""What about e-books?""We can speak for them too.""Audiobooks?""Audiobooks speak for themselves."― Paul Acampora

Advertising brings in customers, but word-of-mouth brings in the best customers. - Jonah Berger

Good cover design is not only about beauty. It’s a visual sales pitch. It’s your first contact with a potential reader. Your cover only has around three seconds to catch a browsing reader’s attention. You want to stand out and make them pause and consider, and read the synopsis. - Eeva Lancaster

I don't care if a reader hates one of my stories, just as long as he finishes the book. - Roald Dahl

I would advise anyone who aspires to a writing career that before developing his talent he would be wise to develop a thick hide. - Harper Lee

Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass. - Anton Chekhov

An opening line should invite the reader to begin the story. It should say: Listen. Come in here. You want to know about this. - Stephen King

“The isolated imagination is easily corrupted by theory, but the writer inside his community seldom has such a problem.” - Flannery O'Connor

“A problem that a character can walk away from is a book a reader can walk away from.” - Unknown

“If you want to be a writer that's the hardest and most important lesson: Finish it. Then go back to fix it.” - Tad Williams

If you don’t think there is magic in writing, you probably won’t write anything magical. - Terry Brooks