Bernard Cornwell Quotes

Then you start another book and suddenly the galley proofs of the last one come in and you have to wrench your attention away from what you’re writing and try to remember what you were thinking when you wrote the previous one.

What I mean by that is that the point of life, as I see it, is not to write books or scale mountains or sail oceans, but to achieve happiness, and preferably an unselfish happiness.

I sometimes wonder what would have happened if the first book had not sold… doesn’t bear thinking about, but I suppose we’d have made it work somehow.

Anyone who claims to have an entirely clear conscience is almost certainly a bore.

I’m fortunate that the books sell, but even more fortunate to live in Chatham, to be very happily married and to have, on the whole, a fairly clear conscience.

At risk of sounding foully pompous I think that writers’ groups are probably very useful at the beginning of a writing career.

And yes, there’s a simplicity to writing books because you’re not a member of a team, so you make all the decisions yourself instead of deferring to a committee.

Research is a lifelong occupation so it’s hard to factor it in, but I reckon most books take 5 months from start to finish.

Writing is a solitary occupation.

Judy couldn’t move to Britain for family reasons, so I had to come to the States, and the U.S. government wouldn’t give me a Green Card, so I airily told her I’d write a book.

The existence of tricks does not imply the absence of magic.

Of course some days are easier than others, but my worst day is better than being in most humdrum occupations.

I’ll happily mentor anyone who wants mentoring, and most of that goes on by internet rather than face to face.

Only a fool wants war, but once a war starts then it cannot be fought half-heartedly. It cannot even be fought with regret, but must be waged with a savage joy in defeating the enemy, and it is that savage joy that inspires our bards to write their greatest songs about love and war.

Book tours and research provide a lot of travel – too much, I sometimes think, but we do take vacations.

The bards sing of love, they celebrate slaughter, they extol kings and flatter queens, but were I a poet I would write in praise of friendship.

Wyrd bith ful araed (Fate is inexorable).

You won’t regret the men you never killed, but you will regret the women you passed up.

So the books have a greater appeal to a British audience, but that hasn’t stopped them making best-seller lists in places like Brazil, Japan and at least a dozen other countries.

Every day is ordinary, until it isn’t.