Publishing Quotes

“When I was in seminary," Father Edward had told other guests around the table when he was purchasing his books, "my spiritual director told me not to read theology. 'Read novels,' he said, and I have.”
― Gail Godwin, Publishing: A Writer’s Memoir

“One of the notebooks was for musings and pep talks. ... The other notebooks were for writing out the novel the way authors had done for centuries.”
― Gail Godwin, Publishing: A Writer’s Memoir

“Squashed behind The Cloud of Unknowing we discovered a pocket-size spiral notebook with a day-by-day account of the time Justin had stayed with her and her husband after Tommy’s death. The writing was legible though it required effort (this was before she took her calligraphy course), but Justin was ecstatic and asked if he could have the little notebook. “This is my history,” he said. Later, after he had deciphered every last word: “Boy, was I loved.”
― Gail Godwin, Publishing: A Writer’s Memoir

“As a teacher, Kurt Vonnegut was easy, magnanimous. He didn't try to make his students into little Kurt Vonneguts. He respected material unlike his own and was startlingly humble about what he did. ("I write with a big black crayon," he would write to me later, "while you're more of an impressionist. I don't think you have it in you to be crude.") In his workshop sessions, things always seemed a little looser, a little kinder, a little funnier.”
― Gail Godwin, Publishing: A Writer’s Memoir