“An idea you have might not be original. But by creating a novel out of that idea you can make it original.” WritingIdeasMightNovelCreatingOriginals Author:Umberto Eco
“My novels tend to come about from a fusion of two big ideas, creating a critical mass that then fissions, throwing off hundreds of other particles, riffs, tropes and characters.” TwoIdeasCharacterBigsNovelCreatingMassCriticalThrowingParticlesFusionBig IdeasTropesCritical MassFission Author:Will Self
“So long as a novelist works selfishly for the pleasure of creating character and situation corresponding to his own illusions, ideals and intuitions, he will always produce something worth while and natural. Directly he takes himself too seriously and begins for the alleged benefit of humanity an elaborate dissection of complexes, he evolves a book that is more ridiculous and tiresome than the most conventional cold cream girl novel of yesterday.” LongBookCharacterHumanityGirlNaturalPleasureSituationNovelProduceColdBenefitsCreatingIllusionIdealsComplexesIntuitionRidiculousYesterdayEvolveNovelistsConventionalCreamCorrespondingTiresomeDissectionCreating Characters Book:Willa Cather in person: interviews, speeches, and letters Source: Willa Cather in person: interviews, speeches, and letters
“Writing a novel is a lot like directing a movie because you are creating a world and a tone, you are creating a large canvas and all the details.” WorldWritingNovelCreatingDetailsToneCanvas Author:Stephen Chbosky
“When I write my novels, I'm not writing them to make political points. I'm writing them because I passionately love monsters and the weird and horror stories and strange situations and surrealism, and what I want to do is communicate that. But, because I come at this with a political perspective, the world that I'm creating is embedded with many of the concerns that I have. But I never let them get in the way of the monsters.” WorldWayWantWritingStoriesPoliticalSituationNovelStrangePerspectiveHorrorCreatingConcernCommunicateMonstersEmbeddedSurrealismHorror Stories Author:China Mieville
“Creating the characters is the most creative part of the novel except for the language itself. There I am, sitting in front of my computer in right-brain mode, typing the things that come to mind - which become the seeds of plot. It's scary, though, because I always wonder: Is it going to be there this time?” MindCharacterLanguageBrainWonderNovelCreativeFrontsComputerCreatingSittingScarySeedsPlotTyping Author:Elizabeth George
“I think escapism is very important, certainly in my life. I love nothing more than escaping into the world of a film or a novel. To be involved in creating that for other people is a privilege.” PeopleThinkingWorldImportantFilmNovelInvolvedCreatingPrivilegeEscapingEscapism Author:Ben Barnes
“Just look at the cinema itself: It's comprised of lots of movies about graphic novels, and if you're not 20 years old and wearing a cape and a mask and white, you're out of business. Today's cinema is a proliferation of comedies, which are in some ways creating caricature images. They're one-dimensional.” IfsWayYearsLooksTodayWhiteNovelComedyCreatingCinemaMaskGraphicCaricaturesProliferationCapesGraphic Novels Author:Danny Glover
“The novelistic attribute of my work is very much like the Russian way of creating novels. Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky - their work has so many gaps. But for the reader, you cannot erase those gaps because they are important. They contextualize the whole struggle. My cinema is like that.” WayImportantWholeNovelStruggleReaderCreatingCinemaGapsAttributesEraseDostoyevsky Author:Lav Diaz
“It may be old hat, but I see no reason to close off what is for me a fruitful subject of inquiry, especially so for one, like me, who is very much interested in creating stories and novels of ideas.” MayIdeasReasonStoriesNovelSubjectsCreatingLike MeHatsNo ReasonInquiryCreating Stories Author:Norman Lock
“When it comes to creating graphic novels I always deliberately work on something completely different to the previous one.” DifferentNovelCreatingGraphicGraphic Novels Author:Bryan Talbot
“When reviewing my novel Dreams of the Compass Rose for the Magazine of F&SF, master fantasist Charles de Lint called it "engaging and resonant, creating a new mythology that feels so right one might be forgiven for thinking that it's the cultural heritage of some forgotten country or people that have been lost to history." This of course I take as the highest compliment, since it was indeed my sincere intent.” PeopleThinkingFeelsHas BeensCountryDreamMightCoursesLostNovelMastersCreatingHighestRoseForgottenMythologyMagazinesSincereComplimentHeritageForgivenEngagingCompassCultural Heritage Author:Vera Nazarian
“The contract between the author and the reader is a game. And the game . . . is one of the greatest invetions of Western civilization: the game of telling stories, inventing characters, and creating the imaginary paradise of the individual, from whence no one can be expelled because, in a novel, no one owns the truth and everyone has the right to be heard and understood.” CharacterStoriesGamesIndividualNovelHeardReaderCivilizationCreatingUnderstoodWesternParadiseContractsImaginaryInventingTelling StoriesWestern Civilization Author:Carlos Fuentes
“The process of writing a novel is like taking a journey by boat. You have to continually set yourself on course. If you get distracted or allow yourself to drift, you will never make it to the destination. It's not like highly defined train tracks or a highway; this is a path that you are creating discovering. The journey is your narrative. Keep to it and there will be a tale told.” IfsWritingCoursesProcessNovelPathJourneyCreatingTrainTrackTalesBoatDefinedNarrativeDestinationDiscoveringHighwaysDistractedTrain Tracks Book:This Year You Write Your Novel Source: This Year You Write Your Novel