Jean M. Auel Quotes

Though my books are written from a historical perspective, I have goon so far back that I am in the realm of prehistorical speculation rather than simple historical fact to weave my stories around.

You learn to write by writing, and by reading and thinking about how writers have created their characters and invented their stories. If you are not a reader, don't even think about being a writer.

Life sometimes gets in the way of writing.

She lifted the drooping muzzle with both hands...It was a special embrace saved for special occasions.

Life is neither static nor unchanging. With no individuality, there can be no change, no adaptation and, in an inherently changing world, any species unable to adapt is also doomed.

I think of my books as mainstream and that's were most people who read them look for them in book stores.

Of the two, I would think of my work as closer to Science Fiction than Fantasy.

I have heard Science Fiction and Fantasy referred to as the fiction of ideas, and I like that definition, but it's the mainstream public that chooses my books for the most part.

I don't write for publishers, certainly not for critics, and not for readers, But I am delighted that so many people have found my books enjoyable and want to continue to read them.

From the beginning, when I first got an idea for a story and wondered if I could write it, it has always been the story that has driven me.

No, my publisher has always done the marketing.

I started writing to please myself, a story I would like to read, and that is still true.

It took some time to gather the research and develop it into the storyline, and to finally finish an origin myth poem that I had been working on for twenty years.

They stared at each other, wanting each other, drawn to each other, but their silent shout of love went unheard in the roar of misunderstanding, and the clatter of culturally ingrained beliefs.

Art was as much in the activity as in the results. Works of art were not just the finished product, but the thought, the action, the process that created them.

You weren't being punished. You were waiting for me.

Illness and accidents were mysterious manifestations of the war of the spirits, fought on the battleground of the body.

I had tears coming out of my eyes. And it was the characters that got me there.

I have been a reader of Science Fiction and Fantasy for a long time, since I was 11 or 12 I think, so I understand it and I'm not at all surprised that readers of the genre might enjoy my books.

I really fell in love with Africa.

The idea led me into the research, which continues to give me more ideas for the story.

I can't tell you any more than any other writer can tell you why they write, and I don't know what my influences are.

There was a time when the young of many clans joined together to make new clans.

I probably read 100 times more than I write, but that way when I move my characters through it, I know.

Each book has been different and has been challenging in its own way to write.

I'm just writing a story that I want to read.