Quote

Tell a story! Don't try to impress your reader with style or vocabulary or neatly turned phrases. Tell the story first!

Anne McCaffrey

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Anne McCaffrey
Age: 85 †
Born: 1926
Born: April 1
Died: 2011
Died: November 21
Novelist
Science Fiction Writer
Writer
Cambridge
Massachusetts
Anne Inez McCaffrey
Stories
Vocabulary
Firsts
Impress
First
Phrases
Writing
Turned
Trying
Reader
Style
Story
Tell
Neatly

More quotes by Anne McCaffrey

Image
That's what writing is all about, after all, making others see what you have put down on the page and believing that it does, or could, exist and you want to go there.
Anne McCaffrey
Image
At age 77, I need the help of someone with more energy than I can now summon to finish a book
Anne McCaffrey
Image
Fight only in direst need Not for lust or petty greed Honor those that do give birth Respect them well for their full worth
Anne McCaffrey
Image
I don't often reread my own books, unless I am going into another in the series and need to refresh my mood when originating the concept
Anne McCaffrey
Image
Fear has its uses but cowardice has none.
Anne McCaffrey
Image
My eyes are green, my hair is silver and I freckly the rest is subject to change without notice.
Anne McCaffrey
Image
Living is struggling to do something impossible To succeed or die, knowing that you had tried.
Anne McCaffrey
Image
James Blish told me I had the worst case of said bookism (that is, using every word except said to indicate dialogue). He told me to limit the verbs to said, replied, asked, and answered and only when absolutely necessary.
Anne McCaffrey
Image
How could she have believed such an artificial life as the theatre was suitable?
Anne McCaffrey
Image
Because we build the worlds we wouldn't mind living in. They contain scary things, problems, but also a sense of rightness that makes them alive and makes us want to live there.
Anne McCaffrey
Image
Make no judgments where you have no compassion.
Anne McCaffrey
Image
The horse, the noblest, bravest, proudest, most courageous and certainly the most perverse and infuriating animal that humans ever domesticated
Anne McCaffrey
Image
I'm 78, I'm on my pension in Ireland, and all that good stuff
Anne McCaffrey
Image
The blackest night must end in dawn, the light dispel the dreamer's fear.
Anne McCaffrey
Image
I have a shelf of comfort books, which I read when the world closes in on me or something untoward happens
Anne McCaffrey
Image
I have my good days and my bad days, but I don't have as much energy as I used to back when I was young and foolish and didn't count the cost - and it takes a lot - to write
Anne McCaffrey
Image
I would recommend the short story form, which is a lot harder to write since you have to be so careful with words, until there is plenty of time to doodle through a novel
Anne McCaffrey
Image
A real scientist solves problems, not wails that they are unsolvable.
Anne McCaffrey
Image
What I used to do between writing fits was feed my kids, ride my horse and go shopping for cat and dog food.
Anne McCaffrey
Image
Step by step Moment by moment We live through Another day
Anne McCaffrey