Anne McCaffrey famous quotes

I have a shelf of comfort books, which I read when the world closes in on me or something untoward happens
-- Anne McCaffrey

#Book #Comfort #World

Make no judgments where you have no compassion.
-- Anne McCaffrey

#Inspirational #Compassion #Judgment

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

#Writing #Together #Stories

Tell a story! Don't try to impress your reader with style or vocabulary or neatly turned phrases. Tell the story first!
-- Anne McCaffrey

#Writing #Vocabulary #Style

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

#Book #Needs #Mood

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

#Media #Needs #Enough

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

#Writing #Good Day #Bad Day

I'm 78, I'm on my pension in Ireland, and all that good stuff
-- Anne McCaffrey

#Stuff #Pension #Ireland

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

#Thinking #Availability #Fans

I do outlines when I'm writing with someone, but they also need to have a certain amount of freedom
-- Anne McCaffrey

#Writing #Needs #Certain

I didn't raise Todd to be a writer, but he happened to be one anyway
-- Anne McCaffrey

#Raises

I did not have a chance to write novels until my youngest child started school fulltime
-- Anne McCaffrey

#Children #Writing #School

Mostly I'm telling people that they don't have to be victims
-- Anne McCaffrey

#People #Victim

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

#Writing #Verbs #Limits

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

#Dream #Dark #Long

A real scientist solves problems, not wails that they are unsolvable.
-- Anne McCaffrey

#Real #Problem #Scientist

Step by step Moment by moment We live through Another day
-- Anne McCaffrey

#Another Day #Steps #Moments

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

#Fighting #Giving #Greed

How much can a dragon carry? As much as it thinks it can
-- Anne McCaffrey

#Thinking #Dragons

My eyes are green, my hair is silver and I freckly; the rest is subject to change without notice.
-- Anne McCaffrey

#Eye #Hair #Green

I'm very fond of the Talent series, and also the Crystal Singer trio.
-- Anne McCaffrey

#Singers #Crystals #Trios

Drummer, beat, and piper, blowHarper, strike, and soldier, goFree the flame and sear the grassesTil the dawning Red Star passes
-- Anne McCaffrey

#Stars #Flames #Soldier

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

#Dragons #Sky #Space

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

#Dragons #Gmos #People

Who wills, Can. Who tries, Does. Who loves, Lives.
-- Anne McCaffrey

#Inspirational #Life #Trying

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

#War #Writing #Needs

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

#Believe #Writing #Want

That's such a thrill - a story I wrote at the beginning of my career, and it's still packin' the house.
-- Anne McCaffrey

#Careers #House #Stories

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

#Mean #Stories #Emotion

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

#Writing #Annoyed #Abuse

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

#Halloween #Scary #Mind

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

#Music #Song #People

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

#Music #Running #Hard Work

At age 77, I need the help of someone with more energy than I can now summon to finish a book
-- Anne McCaffrey

#Book #Age #Energy

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

#Writing #Stories #Form

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

#Use #Speech #Cadence

I have always used emotion as a writing tool. That goes back to me being on the stage
-- Anne McCaffrey

#Writing #Tools #Emotion

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

#Thinking #Views #Needs

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

#Stories #Ships #My Favorite

Fear has its uses but cowardice has none.
-- Anne McCaffrey

#Use #Cowardice

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

#Dog #Horse #Writing