#om

Generally I finish a first draft in 2-6 months, then I set it aside for a while so that when I come back to it I can read it with fresh eyes and figure out how to improve it. ↗

— Margaret Haddix

#back #come #draft #eyes #figure

It's just so much fun to make up characters, situations, and everything else about a story. I have so much freedom and flexibility to do whatever I want. ↗

— Margaret Haddix

#characters #else #everything #flexibility #freedom

For me, disability is a way of getting some extremity, some kind of very difficult situation, that throws an interesting light on people. ↗

— Mark Haddon

#disability #extremity #getting #interesting #kind

Children simply don't make the distinction; a book is either good or bad. And some of the books they think are good are very, very bad indeed. ↗

— Mark Haddon

#book #books #children #distinction #either

I don't remember deciding to become a writer. You decide to become a dentist or a postman. For me, writing is like being gay. You finally admit that this is who you are, you come out and hope that no one runs away. ↗

— Mark Haddon

#away #become #being #come #decide

I've worked in television long enough to know that when you stop enjoying that type of thing you go home and do something else. ↗

— Mark Haddon

#enjoying #enough #go #go home #home

Hope is generally a wrong guide, though it is very good company by the way. ↗

— Edward F. Halifax

#generally #good #good company #guide #hope

I've written 16 children's books and five unpublished novels. Some of the latter were breathtakingly bad. ↗

— Mark Haddon

#books #children #five #i #latter

The one thing you have to do if you write a book is put yourself in someone else's shoes. The reader's shoes. You've got to entertain them. ↗

— Mark Haddon

#else #entertain #got #one thing #put

When I was writing for children, I was writing genre fiction. It was like making a good chair. It needed four legs of the same length, it had to be the right height and it had to be comfortable. ↗

— Mark Haddon

#children #comfortable #fiction #four #genre