Top 500 Quotes & Sayings by Laurell K. Hamilton

If people would write exactly what I wanted to read I wouldn't feel so compelled to write myself.

I try not to worry about rewriting books that worked well the first time. I'm too busy writing new books to worry about things that are already in print.

If I'd been easily discouraged, I could have been a one-hit wonder.

Some people just don't seem to understand the concept of fiction. It is fiction; it ain't true, folks.

I started off like everyone else does, slogging but having a compulsion to put words on paper. I didn't write or read horror or fantasy, other than children's fantasy, until I was in my teens.

I am a very linear thinker, so I write beginning to end. I write hundreds of pages per book that never make it into print.

My characters surprise me constantly. My characters are like my friends - I can give them advice, but they don't have to take it. If your characters are real, then they surprise you, just like real people.

When sex is necessary for the plot of a book, or a character development, then I don't shy away from it. Why should I?

Nothing wrong with making money or doing what you need to do to sell, but I think it shows when you're writing something to pay the bills and when you're writing something because it's really your version of the world.

Never argue with your characters; they know themselves better than you do.

Perfection is an unattainable goal. It isn't going to be perfect. Just get words down on paper, and when you stumble to what you think is the end of the book, you will have hundreds of pages of words that came out of your head. It may not be perfect, but it looks like a book.

My writing style is very sensual, as in sensory detail.

You either mellow at 30, or your head explodes - take your choice.

Now that I'm being very successful, publishers are trying to mainstream me, but I'm unabashedly genre. It's what I like to read, what I like to write.

For me the Anita series is built like a mystery series, which means that as much as possible each book stands alone, so you have a mystery to solve from the beginning to the end of the book.

Everyone spends their lives trying to balance their world between good and evil.

I wasn't like most girls.

Readers respond to every genre intensely, if it's a genre that appeals to them. Again, who can say why anyone enjoys horror and dark fantasy? If I can't answer the question for myself, I wouldn't dream of trying to answer it for others.

If you're open to it, New Orleans will teach you about yourself, but if you want to hide from who you really are, the city will help you do that, too.

I went to Marion College for writing and I was kicked out of the writing school. I was asked to leave the writing program because I was corrupting the other students.

It was just you had to be strong, and if you weren't strong you're a victim and you're not going to make it. That was the reality when I was growing up.

I've lost track of the number of people who want to be writers but never actually write anything. Talking about writing, dreaming about writing, can be very fun, but it won't get a book written. You've got to write.

I always treated writing as a profession, never as a hobby. If you don't believe in yourself, no one else will.

You'd think a sociopath assassin wouldn't have a fan following but he does.

What we prefer to read is sort of like sexual preference, you like what you like. Most of the time you have no clue why.

I'm more influenced by my own interests than anyone else's. Writers have to entertain themselves, or they can't entertain anyone else.

I feel that if you are blessed, or lucky enough, to be doing well, you should help others.

Here's the secret to finishing that first book. Don't rewrite as you go.

I think like a detective.

I've been writing stories since I was 12. 'Writer's Digest' was one of my writing teachers, actually.

I love animals, always have, and it seemed natural to help the ASPCA. Animals have no voice of their own, so we have to be that voice.

Two things I do well in books are sex and violence, but I don't want gratuitous sex or violence. The sex and violence are only as graphic as need be. And never included unless it furthers the plot or character development.

I think that my vampires in general were influenced by my being allowed to watch the Hammer vampire films. Vampire Circus, also shown as Circus of Fear, was one of those movies.

You give the reader a sense of a full meal.

Most of the monsters... are based on some sort of mythology. Every culture and even some geographical areas have monsters and mythology that is their own.

One of my rules is never explain. A writer is a lot like a magician, if you explain how the trick works then a lot of the magic turns mundane.

I'm not terribly fond of soapboxes.

I guess, what I'm saying is that when I've been this surprised by my own characters and world, all bets are off.

The fey in this country keep to themselves, and are a separate nation, much like the American Indians, but with even more autonomy.

What happens in Vegas may stay in Vegas, but what happens in New Orleans, goes home with you.

I cannot say how strongly I object to people using other people's writing as research. Research is non-fiction, especially for horror, fantasy, science fiction. Do not take your research from other people's fiction. Just don't.

Like most creative people I don't fit well into boxes.

By 17, I was submitting to publications and collecting my first rejection slips.

I want a kiss to be so believable it gives the reader shivers.

I like conventions. I like meeting and greeting. I'm perched on that edge where I'm getting more attention than I quite know what to do with, though.

The only true happiness lies in knowing who you are ... and making peace with it.

There are wounds that never show on the body that are deeper and more hurtful than anything that bleeds.

Worry about the things you can control; the rest will either work themselves out, or they'll kill you. Either way, no more worries.

To gain your heart's desire you have to lose some part of your old life, your old self. To do that you have to have courage; without it, you can't make the leap. And if you don't make the leap you have only three choices: You can hate yourself for not taking the chance, you can hate the person from whom you've sacrificed your happiness, or you can hate the one who offered you happiness, and blame them for your lack of courage, convince yourself it wasn't real.

People are supposed to fear the unknown, but ignorance is bliss when knowledge is so damn frightening.

Nill illigitamus carborundum

I will love you always. When this red hair is white, I will still love you. When the smooth softness of youth is replaced by the delicate softness of age, I will still want to touch your skin. When your face is full of the lines of every smile you have ever smiled, of every surprise I have seen flash through your eyes, when every tear you have ever cried has left its mark upon your face,I will treasure you all the more, because I was there to see it all. I will share your life with you, Meredith, and I will love you until the last breath leaves your body or mine.

We are not made up only of our light and happiness but also of darkness and sorrow. To deny the darkness of yourself is to deny half of who you are, and when you love, truly love, you need to love the whole person not just the part that smiles and waves, but the part that thinks murderous thoughts and knows that pain is both pleasure and temptation, but still thinks puppies are really cute.

My father had taught me to be nice first, because you can always be mean later, but once you've been mean to someone, they won't believe the nice anymore. So be nice, be nice, until it's time to stop being nice, then destroy them.

There comes a point when you either embrace who and what you are, or condemn yourself to be miserable all your days. Other people will try to make you miserable; don't help them by doing the job yourself.

Giving up something that no longer serves a purpose, or protects you, or helps you, isn’t giving up at all, it’s growing up.

Never trust people who smile constantly. They're either selling something or not very bright.

Hope will lie to you, but lust is what it is; it never lies.

Remember your personal demons should be afraid of you, because you are their home, their food, and as you heal, their executioner.

Being a successful couple was learning what you were willing to compromise on, and what you weren't; learning when to stand your ground, and when to give it up; what was truly important enough to fight over, and what was just you being pissy. You learned each other's hot buttons, the places that hurt, or angered, when you pressed them. Love makes you learn where all the pitfalls are, and how to avoid them, or how to set them off.