Jean M. Auel quotes

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. (Jean M. Auel)
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.
Jean M. Auel
I started writing to please myself, a story I would like to read, and that is still true.
Jean M. Auel
And that's how I start myself. I usually go back a couple of pages, maybe to the beginning of the chapter, and I start reading. And as I'm reading, I'm tweaking - putting in a different word, changing the syntax, putting that clause over there, you know that sort of thing.
Jean M. Auel
The idea led me into the research, which continues to give me more ideas for the story.
Jean M. Auel
Of the two, I would think of my work as closer to Science Fiction than Fantasy.
Jean M. Auel
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.
Jean M. Auel
I could write historical fiction, or science fiction, or a mystery but since I find it fascinating to research the clues of some little know period and develop a story based on that, I will probably continue to do it.
Jean M. Auel
Life sometimes gets in the way of writing.
Jean M. Auel
Science Fiction is not just about the future of space ships travelling to other planets, it is fiction based on science and I am using science as my basis for my fiction, but it's the science of prehistory - palaeontology and archaeology - rather than astronomy or physics.
Jean M. Auel
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. (Jean M. Auel)
Each book has been different and has been challenging in its own way to write.
Jean M. Auel
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.
Jean M. Auel
My fiction is reviewed by the mainstream press, by science fiction periodicals, romance magazines, small press publications and various other journals, including some usually devoted to archaeological and other science material.
Jean M. Auel
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.
Jean M. Auel
Aside from sales, the letters from readers have been primarily positive.
Jean M. Auel
I really fell in love with Africa.
Jean M. Auel
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.
Jean M. Auel
I had an idea for a story about a young woman who was living with people who were different, not just superficially different - such as hair colour, or eye colour, or skin colour - but different in some significant way.
Jean M. Auel
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.
Jean M. Auel
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. (Jean M. Auel)
I think of my books as mainstream and that's were most people who read them look for them in book stores.
Jean M. Auel
I'm just writing a story that I want to read.
Jean M. Auel
I probably read 100 times more than I write, but that way when I move my characters through it, I know.
Jean M. Auel
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.
Jean M. Auel