I did not have a chance to write novels until my youngest child started school fulltime
Anne McCaffreyOf 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 McCaffreyAt age 77, I need the help of someone with more energy than I can now summon to finish a book
Anne McCaffreyI have a shelf of comfort books, which I read when the world closes in on me or something untoward happens
Anne McCaffreyI 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 McCaffreyI 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 McCaffreyTell the readers a story! Because without a story, you are merely using words to prove you can string them together in logical sentences.
Anne McCaffreyTo 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 McCaffreyI 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 McCaffreyAbove 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 McCaffreyBecause 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 McCaffreyI 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 McCaffreyDrummer, beat, and piper, blowHarper, strike, and soldier, goFree the flame and sear the grassesTil the dawning Red Star passes
Anne McCaffreyEach 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 McCaffreyI have always used emotion as a writing tool. That goes back to me being on the stage
Anne McCaffreyThe horse, the noblest, bravest, proudest, most courageous and certainly the most perverse and infuriating animal that humans ever domesticated
Anne McCaffreyPeople have freaked out when I tell them that my dragons are scientifically based... what else can you call a genetically engineered life form?
Anne McCaffreyMy eyes are green, my hair is silver and I freckly; the rest is subject to change without notice.
Anne McCaffreyYour 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 McCaffreyBut 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 McCaffreyI 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 McCaffreyI 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 McCaffreyJames 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 McCaffreyI do outlines when I'm writing with someone, but they also need to have a certain amount of freedom
Anne McCaffrey