Piers Anthony

“I maintain an ongoing survey of Internet Publishing and self publishing, so that it is now possible for any writer with a book to get it published at nominal cost or free, and to have it on sale at booksellers like Amazon.com.”

“Have a working spouse, because you won't earn a living from writing - not at first, if ever. My wife worked for years to support us.”

“That most dangerous of opponents: the one who took pains to comprehend the position of his adversary.”

“Only in Xanth would parents see a dragon looming over their children and depart with confidence.”

“At the time I wrote Xone I had never been on the Internet.”

“If every editor turns you down, maybe you should take a second look at your text, however, just in case.”

“Princess Rose should indeed be a TV movie, assuming something doesn't go wrong. I don't know how good a movie it will be, because the way movie folk think is different from the way writers think, and I distrust what isn't done my way. This is what I call a healthy paranoia.”

“As for collaboration - I have done a lot, 26 books, and found publishers increasingly resistive to them. It's not that the books are bad; editors won't even read them.”

“Adults had the notion that juveniles needed to suffer. Only when they had suffered enough to wipe out most of their naturally joyous spirits and innocence were they staid enough to be considered mature. An adult was essentially a broken-down child.”

“I never do a full outline, and if I did, I would not feel bound to it, because the view from inside a scene can be different from the view outside it. But neither do I just start writing and see what happens; I am far more disciplined than that.”

“All things make sense; you just have to fathom how they make sense.”

“Being terrified but going ahead and doing what must be done—that's courage. The one who feels no fear is a fool, and the one who lets fear rule him is a coward.”

“Keep writing, because not only does practice improve skill, it gives you more chances to score on the market. I did that for eight years before making my first sale.”

“Dor woke again as dawn came. The sun had somehow gotten around to the east, where the land was, and dried off so that it could shine again.”

“Now it was done. He was free of Xanth forever. Free to make his own life, without being ridiculed or mothered or tempted. Free to be himself.Bink put his face in his hands and cried.”

“I did not know at first that it would be a series; I discovered after the first novel that I had more to say about it, so I did another. And another, and then the readers demanded yet more.”

“I have always admired the work of Phil Farmer and was glad for the chance to work with him. Readers today may be too young to remember his classics like The Lovers.”

“When I started writing this, I found that I simply couldn't take fantasy seriously, so it became humorous, and continued from there.”

“In fact, I believe that we need better sex education in our own culture, here in America, so that young folk learn about things like venereal disease before they encounter it.”

“No novel is a clone of any preceding one, though with a background cast of characters and things that has grown to thousands, there are many familiar aspects.”