Literary Birthday – 21 June – Andrzej Sapkowski

Happy Birthday, Andrzej Sapkowski, born on 21 June 1948.

Andrzej Sapkowski Quotes

1. If the fictional character serves the story well, an author likes his character. If an author doesn’t like his character, finds him unlikeable or faulty in any part or aspect, it means an author has done his job poorly. Or he is schizophrenic. Or both. (Audible)
2. You don’t create universes in short stories, there is—literally and metaphorically—no place for them. Later, when my stories started evolving into full novels, the necessity of some coherent background became imminent. And slowly, step by step, something resembling a universe started to emerge. (Audible)
3. Isaac Asimov used to say that a short story is a straight line; a novel is a plane. In the story, the writer—and the reader—go straight from point A to point B. In the novel, you move in many directions. Both have their advantages, and disadvantages, depending on what an author (or reader) likes or dislikes. (Audible)
4. Put the blame on the Muse. Since the dawn of time, it is the Muse who has been responsible for a writer’s inspiration. The Muse flies over writers’ heads and gives him that spark. And that’s exactly what happened to me. (Polygon)
5. Let’s leave the judgment to the readers. It ultimately depends on their perception whether a character has gained depth or not. (Polygon)
6. [I write] in the morning. If we can agree that 11 o’clock is the morning. And why? Because it suits my lifestyle. (Lithub)
7. Writer’s block is overrated. The term was invented and established by lazy writers who didn’t feel like writing and needed to find an excuse to use with agents and publishers. But the truth is that there’s always some work to be done with a book, even if you don’t feel like writing. You can correct what you’ve already written; corrections never do any harm. You can do research, study source materials. You can read the competition’s books—not to steal their ideas, but to be familiar with current trends and to find the right course to steer among them. (Lithub)
8. I do not like working too hard or too long. By the way, I do not like working at all. (Gizmodo)
9. Believe it or not, when I write I don’t see any pictures. It is not a visual process with me. I see letters only and I work with letters. So, when I see some visualisation of my work—be it comics, games or movies—sometimes I am really surprised. Mostly pleasantly. (Gizmodo)

Andrzej Sapkowski is a major heroic-fantasy Polish writer. He is best known for his series of books, The Witcher, which revolve around the eponymous monster hunter, or ‘witcher’, Geralt of Rivia. The saga, made up of nine novels and 15 short stories, has been translated into 37 languages and 30 million copies have been sold. A brand new novel in the saga, Crossroads of Ravens, was published in 2025. The Witcher video games have been even more successful, with more than 75 million copies sold as of May 2023. He has received Poland’s Janusz A. Zajdel prize five times, as well as Great Britain’s David Gemmell Award for Fantasy, in 2009. In 2016, he received the World Fantasy Award – Life Achievement in the United States.

Source for photograph: Author’s Website

by Amanda Patterson
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