10 John Sandford Quotes on Writing and for Writers
Here are 10 John Sandford quotes for writers and about writing from the author of Rules of Prey, The Fool’s Run, and Holy Ghost. In these quotes, Sandford covers journalism, grammar, anonymity, and more.
Here are 10 John Sandford quotes for writers and about writing from the author of Rules of Prey, The Fool's Run, and Holy Ghost. In these quotes, Sandford covers journalism, grammar, anonymity, and more.
John Sandford is an American novelist and former journalist. As a journalist, he was nominated for a Pulitzer in 1980 and won a Pulitzer in 1986. As an author, he's written more than 40 novels and a few nonfiction titles. A couple of his titles include Rules of Prey and Holy Ghost.
Here are 10 John Sandford quotes for writers and about writing from the November/December 2014 issue of Writer's Digest magazine.
10 John Sandford quotes for writers and about writing
"By the time I get to the end of the book, I may have looked at the first page 10 or 15 times. Then I go back and spend probably a month working over the book."
"I have no problem writing very smooth, idiosyncratic, nicely curved scenes, but I've got to know what the idea is, and that's the hard part."
"I prefer anonymity. I really do. I don't like people looking at me because I like to look at people."
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"I think that most good writers really know grammar."
"I will write a chapter, and because I don't outline, I won't necessarily know what's coming up."
"I write virtually every day."
"If I hadn't become a bestselling writer, I was going to stop.'"
"Most awful crimes are committed by really stupid people, and really stupid people are not much of a challenge for your character. So you've got to have a smart person who is committing really ugly crimes."
"The major benefit of working in journalism is the stuff you get to see."
"What you want is a specific kind of location because all places have idiosyncrasies, and putting the idiosyncrasies in the book makes the scene more tactile and real."
Robert Lee Brewer is Senior Editor of Writer's Digest, which includes managing the content on WritersDigest.com and programming virtual conferences. He's the author of 40 Plot Twist Prompts for Writers: Writing Ideas for Bending Stories in New Directions, The Complete Guide of Poetic Forms: 100+ Poetic Form Definitions and Examples for Poets, Poem-a-Day: 365 Poetry Writing Prompts for a Year of Poeming, and more. Also, he's the editor of Writer's Market, Poet's Market, and Guide to Literary Agents. Follow him on Twitter @robertleebrewer.
