Don't people know that it's the hardest work in the world? Joseph Conrad said that he had loaded hundredweights of coal all day long on a ship in Ams…

- Mary Lee Settle

[The inspiration that comes to authors of fiction] is not an act of intelligence.

- Mary Lee Settle

Recorded history is wrong. It’s wrong because the voiceless have no voice in it.

- Mary Lee Settle

Having watched herself in the speckled mirror ... she was already shocked beyond surprise at what the flat hand of age could do.

- Mary Lee Settle

When I'm working on a serious and solid book ... I read about a detective novel a day. It's the best legal dope in the world. It makes you feel good …

- Mary Lee Settle

Anyone who has a choice and doesn't choose to write is a fool. The work is hard, the perks are few, the pay is terrible, and the product, when it's f…

- Mary Lee Settle

Somerset Maugham said that it took at least six human beings to make one fictional character. That is true of landscape as well, I think. We have to …

- Mary Lee Settle

the first time you are reconciled to the terrible unfairness of disappointment, you are getting old.

- Mary Lee Settle