“If you don't see the book you want on the shelves, write it.”

“Draw the art you want to see, start the business you want to run, play the music you want to hear, write the books you want to read, build the products you want to use – do the work you want to see done.”

“In order to write the book you want to write, in the end you have to become the person you need to become to write that book.”

“An author is a person who can never take innocent pleasure in visiting a bookstore again. Say you go in and discover that there are no copies of your book on the shelves. You resent all the other books - I don't care if they are Great Expectations, Life on the Mississippi and the King James Bible that are on the shelves.”

“I don't write books for people to be friends with the characters. If you want to find friends, go to a cocktail party.”

“You have to write the book that wants to be written. And if the book will be too difficult for grown-ups, then you write it for children.”