1.
I wouldn't encourage new writers to start off publishing through electronic media... it still isn't wide enough for the readership they would need to get a good start
Anne McCaffrey
2.
I have a shelf of comfort books, which I read when the world closes in on me or something untoward happens
Anne McCaffrey
3.
But I will say that living in Ireland has changed the cadence and fullness of speech, since the Irish love words and use as many of them in a sentence as possible
Anne McCaffrey
4.
Make no judgments where you have no compassion.
Anne McCaffrey
5.
I think the Internet, particularly the availability of information, is great. I do a lot of correspondence on-line and have a chat line to talk to my fans as well
Anne McCaffrey
6.
I did not have a chance to write novels until my youngest child started school fulltime
Anne McCaffrey
7.
I think writers need windows on a view to remind them that a whole world is out there, not the minutiae with which they might be dealing on a close scale
Anne McCaffrey
8.
How much can a dragon carry?
As much as it thinks it can
Anne McCaffrey
9.
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
10.
The thing is, emotion - if it's visibly felt by the writer - will go through all the processes it takes to publish a story and still hit the reader right in the gut. But you have to really mean it.
Anne McCaffrey
11.
Living is struggling to do something impossible;
To succeed or die, knowing that you had tried.
Anne McCaffrey
12.
Step by step
Moment by moment
We live through
Another day
Anne McCaffrey
13.
Above us, outlined against the brilliant sky, dragons crowded every available perching space on the Rim. And the sun made a gold of every one of them.
Anne McCaffrey
14.
I'm very fond of the Talent series, and also the Crystal Singer trio.
Anne McCaffrey
15.
Tell a story! Don't try to impress your reader with style or vocabulary or neatly turned phrases. Tell the story first!
Anne McCaffrey
16.
Tell the readers a story! Because without a story, you are merely using words to prove you can string them together in logical sentences.
Anne McCaffrey
17.
Who wills,
Can.
Who tries,
Does.
Who loves,
Lives.
Anne McCaffrey
18.
I do outlines when I'm writing with someone, but they also need to have a certain amount of freedom
Anne McCaffrey
19.
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
20.
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
21.
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
22.
The blackest night must end in dawn, the light dispel the dreamer's fear.
Anne McCaffrey
23.
Mostly I'm telling people that they don't have to be victims
Anne McCaffrey
24.
That's such a thrill - a story I wrote at the beginning of my career, and it's still packin' the house.
Anne McCaffrey
25.
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
26.
People have freaked out when I tell them that my dragons are scientifically based... what else can you call a genetically engineered life form?
Anne McCaffrey
27.
Each email contains an unsubscribe link. We will NEVER sell, rent, loan, or abuse your email address in ANY way. Writing has been so much a part of my life that I'm really quite annoyed that I can't do as much as I used to.
Anne McCaffrey
28.
I didn't mean to stay up all night to finish Windhaven, but I had to!
Anne McCaffrey
29.
Drummer, beat, and piper, blowHarper, strike, and soldier, goFree the flame and sear the grassesTil the dawning Red Star passes
Anne McCaffrey
30.
Of course, an exhausting day at sail lines and nets left little energy to expend on running or laughing. Perhaps that was why her parents couldn't appreciate her music - it wouldn't appear to be hard work to them. Menolly shook her hands, letting them flap from her wrists. They ached and trembled from the constricted movements and tension of an hour of intensive playing. No, her parents would never understand that playing musical instruments could be as hard work as sailing or fishing.
Anne McCaffrey
31.
I also don't have organized religion on Pern. I figured - since there were four holy wars going on at the time of writing - that religion was one problem Pern didn't need.
Anne McCaffrey
32.
The horse, the noblest, bravest, proudest, most courageous and certainly the most perverse and infuriating animal that humans ever domesticated
Anne McCaffrey
33.
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
34.
I'm 78, I'm on my pension in Ireland, and all that good stuff
Anne McCaffrey
35.
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
36.
I didn't raise Todd to be a writer, but he happened to be one anyway
Anne McCaffrey
37.
To cry was to release all sorts of ugly little pressures and tensions. Like waking out of a long, dark dream to a sun-filled day.
Anne McCaffrey
38.
I have always used emotion as a writing tool. That goes back to me being on the stage
Anne McCaffrey
39.
Your music can be played easily and well by any half-stringed harper or fumble-fingered idiot. Not that I'm maligning your songs. It's just that they're an entirely different kettle of fish-to use a seamanly metaphor-to Domick's. Don't you judge your songs against his standard! More people have already listened to your melodies and liked them than will ever hear Domick's, much less like them.
Anne McCaffrey
40.
How could she have believed such an artificial life as the theatre was suitable?
Anne McCaffrey
41.
A real scientist solves problems, not wails that they are unsolvable.
Anne McCaffrey
42.
Fear has its uses but cowardice has none.
Anne McCaffrey
43.
My eyes are green, my hair is silver and I freckly; the rest is subject to change without notice.
Anne McCaffrey
44.
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
45.
But Ship Who Sang remains my favorite story. I really rocked folks with that and still cannot read it aloud myself without weeping at the end
Anne McCaffrey
46.
At age 77, I need the help of someone with more energy than I can now summon to finish a book
Anne McCaffrey