Recent content by Paul Whybrow

“When we read a story, we inhabit it. The covers of the book are like a roof and four walls. What is to happen next will take place within the four walls of the story. And this is possible because the story's voice makes everything its own.” John Berger

Thankfully, perseverance is a great substitute for talent. Steve Martin

“We surrender the outcomes because we cannot control how people are going to respond to us and our work in the world.” Rob Bell

It takes a lot of energy and a lot of neurosis to write a novel. If you were really sensible, you'd do something else. Lawrence Durrell

"I would live all my life in nonchalance and insouciance, were it not for making a living, which is rather a nouciance." Ogden Nash

"Commitment is doing the thing you said you were going to do long after the mood you said it in has left you." Darren Hardy

I can't think of anyone I admire who isn't fuelled by self-doubt. It's an essential ingredient. It's the grit in the oyster. Richard Eyre

We have to be able to grow up. Our wrinkles are our medals of the passage of life. They are what we have been through and who we want to be. Lauren Hutton

Having unlimited choices can paralyze you creatively. David Byrne

We all make mistakes, don’t we? But if you can’t forgive yourself, you’ll always be an exile in your own life Curtis Sittenfeld

Happiness is having a large, loving, caring, close-knit family in another city. George Burns

Criticism is part of being in the marketplace. If you can't take a bit of criticism, you shouldn't bother publishing a book. Tibor Fischer

“I care for myself. The more solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustained I am, the more I will respect myself.” Charlotte Brontë

“Once upon a time, when women were birds, there was the simple understanding that to sing at dawn and to sing at dusk was to heal the world through joy. The birds still remember what we have forgotten, that the world is meant to be celebrated." Terry Tempest Williams