Steven Saylor Quotes

• All writing is an act of self-exploration. Even a grocery list says something about you; how much more does a novel say?

  Steven Saylor

  Writing, Self, Doe

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• Not write what you know, but know what you write. If you write about a world before, after, or other than this one, enter that world completely. Search it to find your deepest longings and most terrible fears. Let imagination carry you as far as it may, as long as you recount the voyage with excitement and wonder. But this is the most important rule: write the book you most long to read.

  Steven Saylor

  Book, Writing, Imagination

  "Know thy subject" by Steven Saylor, www.theguardian.com. October 5, 2002.

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• Writing a first novel takes so much effort, with such little promise of result or reward, that it must necessarily be a labour of love bordering on madness.

  Steven Saylor

  Writing, Effort, Promise

  "Know thy subject" by Steven Saylor, www.theguardian.com. October 5, 2002.

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• Some men are one thing on the surface and another underneath. The true poet shows not just the exterior of his subject, but all the contradictions within, and lets the reader draw his own conclusions.

  Steven Saylor

  Men, Poet, Contradiction

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• We all have a lot of people inside us, yet we get to live only one life. Fiction lets us slip into someone else’s skin, so to speak. That’s why we read novels, and also why we write them - to experience more life, through imagination.

  Steven Saylor

  Writing, People, Skins

  "MysteryPeople Q&A with Steven Saylor". Interview with Scott Butki, mysterypeople.wordpress.com. March 31, 2014.

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• Im like the painter with his nose to the canvas, fussing over details. Gazing from a distance, the reader sees the big picture.

  Steven Saylor

  Distance, Details, Gazing

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• In politics, reality and appearance are of equal importance. You cannot attend to one and neglect the other. A man must determine both what he is, and what others believe him to be.

  Steven Saylor

  Believe, Reality, Men

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• Even the crudest, most derivative novel is an expression of the author's hopes and fears and ideas about good and evil.

  Steven Saylor

  Expression, Ideas, Evil

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• There is a fine sense of freedom that comes from wandering about a familiar city with no particular destination in mind, with no one to meet, no duties, no obligations. I had nothing to do and a thousand nameless, sun-drenched streets to do it in.

  Steven Saylor

  Cities, Mind, Sun

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• Adrienne Mayor's inquiry into the myth--and surprising reality--of Amazon women begins with the fierce Greek huntress Atalanta, but takes us deep into the past and as far afield as the Great Wall of China. With the restless curiosity and meticulous scholarship that have become her hallmark, the author once again has found a gap in my bookshelf and filled it, admirably.

  Steven Saylor

  Wall, Past, Reality

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• I can't say I had an ideal father, and I'm not a father myself.

  Steven Saylor

  Father, Ideals, I Can

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• When I was a boy, my grandfather taught me the list of kings: Romulus, Numa Pompilius, Tullus Hostilius, Ancus Marcius, Tarquinius the Elder, Servius Tullius. Tarquinius the Proud was to be the last, the very last, cast out and replaced forever by something called a republic. A mockery! A mistake! An experiment that failed! Today is the republic’s final day. Tomorrow, men will shout in the Forum, ‘All hail King Coriolanus!

  Steven Saylor

  Kings, Mistake, Boys

  Steven Saylor (2007). “Roma: A Novel of Ancient Rome”, p.168, Macmillan

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