Diana Gabaldon Book Quotations

I don't plot the books out ahead of time, I don't plan them. I don't begin at the beginning and end at the end. I don't work with an outline and I don't work in a straight line.

I read all the time. People ask, 'Do you read while you work?' And I say, 'I better.' I take two or three years to finish one of my enormous books, and I can't go that long without reading.

When you're reading, you're not where you are; you're in the book. By the same token, I can write anywhere.

You could tell from the books whether a library was meant for show or not. Books that were used had an open, interested feel to them, even if closed and neatly lined up on a shelf in strict order with their fellows. You felt as though the book took as much interest in you as you did in it and was willing to help when you reached for it.

A general cry of "What book? What book? Let us see this famous book!

Character, I think, is the single most important thing in fiction. You might read a book once for its interesting plot—but not twice.