“I never wanted my books to be mistaken for poetry or fiction books; I wanted to write reference books. But instead of referring to something, they refer to nothing.” WritingBookWantedFictionMistakenReferring Author:Kenneth Goldsmith
“I'm aware of narrating certain experiences as they happen or obliterating those experiences with narrative and then those stories - not the experiences themselves - might become material for art. This kind of transformation shows up a lot in 10:04 because the book tracks the transposition of fact into fiction in the New Yorker stor” KindArtBookFactsStoriesShowsMightHappensCertainFictionMaterialsTransformationTrackNarrativeNew Yorkers Author:Ben Lerner
“If asked to list my ten favorite American fiction writers, Gail Godwin would be among them. In this, her latest . . . she evokes in a short book the long married life of two artists. Evenings at Five is a strong tale of love-after-death.” IfsLongTwoBookWould BeArtistStrongFictionFiveTenMarriedListsTalesEveningAfter DeathEvokeFiction WritersMarried LifeGail Author:Ned Rorem
“I usually get up not before 9. I have a huge library - I'm a big fan of Scandinavian crime fiction - so I'll usually take a book and go off to one of my favorite bistros for a cappuccino or espresso or maybe I'll have some lovely smoked salmon for breakfast.” BookBigsFictionFansCrimeHugeLibraryMy FavoriteLovelyGet UpBreakfastCrime FictionSalmonEspressoScandinaviansScandinaviaCappuccinoBistroSmoked Salmon Author:Anthony Geary
“I confess I didn't read the 'Green Arrow' comics before coming to play Shado. The comic books are not as easily accessible in Hong Kong as they are in the States. I do enjoy superhero fiction, though.” BookStatesPlayEnjoyFictionGreenComicComic BookSuperheroArrowsHong Kong Author:Celina Jade
“I can think of very few science books I've read that I've called useful. What they've been is wonderful. They've actually made me feel that the world around me is a much fuller, much more wonderful, much more awesome place than I ever realized it was. That has been, for me, the wonder of science. That's why science fiction retains its compelling fascination for people. That's why the move of science fiction into biology is so intriguing. I think that science has got a wonderful story to tell.” PeopleThinkingWorldFeelsHas BeensMadeI CanBookStoriesMovingFictionWonderWonderfulScience FictionBiologyCompellingFascinationIntriguingScience Books Author:Simon Jenkins
“When you're writing a book that is going to be a narrative with characters and events, you're walking very close to fiction, since you're using some of the methods of fiction writing. You're lying, but some of the details may well come from your general recollection rather than from the particular scene. In the end it comes down to the readers. If they believe you, you're OK. A memoirist is really like any other con man; if he's convincing, he's home. If he isn't, it doesn't really matter whether it happened, he hasn't succeeded in making it feel convincing.” IfsMenFeelsWritingBelieveWellsMayBookEndsMatterCharacterHomeLyingFictionHappenedEventsParticularReaderWalkingSceneMethodDetailsNarrativeConvincingWriting A BookRecollectionFiction Writing Author:Samuel Hynes
“I have always felt like an artist when I work on a book. I see no reason why the word should always be confined to writers of fiction and poetry.” ShouldBookReasonArtistFeltFictionReason WhyNo ReasonConfined Book:Practicing History: Selected Essays Source: Practicing History: Selected Essays
“It's very hard to be a screenwriter. I remember getting a couple of awards. I got a PEN West award a million years ago when I did Running on Empty, and I sat in the room with all these writers. They wrote everything from novels to non-fiction to children's books to journalism - any kind of writing - and I realized that there was no one in the room who would ever read anything I'd written.” WritingYearsKindChildrenBookHardRunningRememberRoomsFictionMillionsNovelWrittenCoupleYears AgoEmptyWestI RealizedJournalismSatPensAwardsNon FictionScreenwritersChildren's Books Author:Naomi Foner Gyllenhaal
“I'm fond of science fiction. But not all science fiction. I like science fiction where there's a scientific lesson, for example - when the science fiction book changes one thing but leaves the rest of science intact and explores the consequences of that. That's actually very valuable.” BookFictionOne ThingExampleLessonsConsequenceScience FictionValuable Author:Richard Dawkins
“It's the fantasy of first love. If you've been married for 400 years, as I have, it's nice to experience first love again and you can vicariously through a book. And it is such a fantasy. It takes you away from doing the dishes and the laundry. I think of this as a contemporary romance rather than erotic fiction.” IfsThinkingYearsFirstsBookRomanceFictionFantasyNiceMarriedContemporaryDishesFirst LoveEroticLaundryLove Again Author:E. L. James
“When I am writing political op-eds, I do think carefully about the impact of my words. When I am writing fiction, it's a different story. In my fiction I am more reckless. I don't care about the real world until I am done with the book.” ThinkingWorldWritingBookDifferentRealDoneStoriesCarePoliticalFictionImpactDon't CareI Don't CareReal WorldRecklessWriting Fiction Author:Elif Safak
“There was a price to be paid for being interested in fiction and in writing, pushing my family away. Books and authors became my family.” WritingBookFictionMy FamilyPaidPushing Author:Garrison Keillor
“Politically I also don't believe anymore that we can only have one voice to a story, it's like having one radio station to represent a country. You want the politics of any complicated situation to be complicated in a book of fiction or nonfiction.” WantBelieveBookCountryStoriesVoiceFictionSituationDon't BelieveRadioComplicatedStationsNonfictionRadio Stations Author:Michael Ondaatje
“I'm writing books. They're still a mix of fact and fiction and will continue to be. I think it's an interesting place to work.” ThinkingWritingStillsBookFactsInterestingFictionWriting A BookInteresting PlacesFact And Fiction Author:James Frey
“In terms of fiction, I'd rather go out and have a good time than read a book about someone having a good or bad time.” BookTermFictionGood TimesHaving A Good TimeBad Times Author:Joni Mitchell
“It's ironic: In movies, the most successful films of all time have been sci-fi or fantasy. By far. But a lot of people won't even read science fiction books.” PeopleHas BeensBookFilmFictionFantasySuccessfulScience FictionAll TimeIronicSci Fi Author:David S. Goyer
“For me, wellbehaved books with neat plots and worked-out endings seem somewhat quaint in the face of the largely incoherent reality of modern life; and then again fiction, at least as I write it and think of it, is a kind of religious meditation in which language is the final enlightenment, and it is language, in its beauty, its ambiguity and its shifting textures, that drives my work.” ThinkingWritingKindBookRealitySeemsFacesLanguageReligiousFictionMeditationModernEnlightenmentFinalsPlotShiftingModern LifeAmbiguityTextureNeatQuaint Author:Don DeLillo
“You can look at my autobiographical pieces as source books... But, you see, my fiction doesn't revolve around autobiographical questions.” LooksBookFictionPiecesSource Author:Paul Auster
“I think it's hard to write a book about happiness because fiction requires tension and complication.” ThinkingWritingBookHardFictionTensionComplication Author:Edwidge Danticat
“We sometimes drive ourselves crazy with how our books will be "seen," when in fact we already know what they're about, and where our obsessions are. If we can spin those obsessions into fiction, then there's a decent chance they will be "fiction-worthy," as you call it. The idea of the "sweep of ideas" is a complicated one.” IfsKnowsBookIdeasSometimesFactsChanceFictionCrazyComplicatedWorthyObsessionDecent Author:Meg Wolitzer
“If Fobbit leaves a reader feeling stranded in some bland in-between territory, then I haven't done my job. But having said all that, I didn't consciously write the book with a particular moral intent. I took what I experienced and processed it through the sausage factory of fiction. It's up to readers to interpret what's on the page - as is the case with any novel.” IfsWritingSaidBookDoneFeelingsJobsFictionMoralCasesNovelHavensParticularReaderPagesTerritoryFactoriesSausageBlandStranded Author:Dave Abrams
“In terms of writing, I think what most fiction writers treasure more than anything is the feeling that they're living for the length of a book inside another person.” ThinkingWritingPersonsBookFeelingsTermFictionTreasureLengthFiction Writers Author:Lauren Groff
“If you talk about genres - I don't care if you're talking about war, Westerns, science fiction, horror, fantasy, humor, romance - anything you can find, strolling the aisles of a Borders or a Barnes & Noble, I can bring you many comic books representing each genre.” IfsI CanBookWarCareRomanceFictionTalkingFantasyHorrorScience FictionDon't CareNobleComicGenreI Don't CareBordersComic BookRepresentingStrollingAisle Author:Michael Uslan
“Novels should be judged rigorously. Either a book works or it doesn't. The fact that something is true in the real world should not lend authority to it in fiction.” WorldShouldBookRealFactsFictionNovelAuthorityReal WorldJudged Author:Akhil Sharma
“There is, in my mind, no higher compliment to pay a non-fiction book than to say it reads like a novel.” MindBookPayFictionNovelHigherComplimentNon Fiction Author:Jon Weisman
“Dogwalker is a book of fiction, with characters based on the types of people who truly exist in the world. I've seen them and know them - some of them I know really well. Although the stories are sometimes gritty and unsettling, my hope is that in the end they hit a positive note.” PeopleKnowsWorldWellsBookEndsSometimesCharacterStoriesFictionTypeNotes Author:Arthur Bradford
“I love outsider stories. And I also like a lot of genre fiction, too. So I wanted to write a literary book that flirted with thriller and fantasy and even science fiction. I wanted the coming-of-age story and the love story to be about "outsiderdom" - one of the themes I am most interested in.” WritingBookStoriesAgeWantedFictionFantasyScience FictionLove StoryGenreThemeComing Of AgeOutsidersThrillers Author:Porochista Khakpour
“The Israel stories were really hard for me to write, because I think that my book is very much about politics, but it isn't political. It really was important for me to not have a political agenda at all, because I have a hard time stomaching any political fiction that feels message-y.” ThinkingFeelsWritingImportantBookHardStoriesPoliticalFictionMessagesIsraelHard TimesAgendasPolitical Agendas Author:Molly Antopol
“Fiction is more dangerous than nonfiction because it can seduce better. I think we all know this, know that deeper truths can be approached in fiction than in fact. There are risks for the reader, because after reading certain books you find you have changed irreversibly. There are risks for writers: in China, now, and Ethiopia and other countries right now, writers face real persecution.” ThinkingKnowsBookRealCountryFactsFacesCertainReadingFictionRiskDangerousChangedReaderRight NowChinaDeeperNonfictionOther CountriesPersecutionSeducingEthiopiaYou Have Changed Author:Chris Abani
“Fiction is risky for writers also in that the process of making certain books, of shaping certain narratives, leaves scars and marks on your inner life.” BookCertainProcessFictionMarkNarrativeScarInner Life Author:Chris Abani
“I think the MFA programs have had a real effect on the state of American fiction, but I don't think it's a question of "this is written by someone with an MFA, and this isn't." I challenge anyone to identify a book in that way. It's totally impossible.” ThinkingWayBookRealStatesChallengesFictionImpossibleWrittenEffectsProgram Author:Chad Harbach
“The idea of the writer who writes nineteen novels, with various ups and downs and levels of experimentation, isn't around so much now. There's a focus, I think, on fewer books, with more pressure on each book to succeed. With that there comes, I think, a certain pressure towards shapeliness in fiction. Towards neatness. And I think writers feel that, and it can effect how they write.” ThinkingFeelsWritingBookIdeasCertainLevelsFictionNovelFocusEffectsSucceedPressureVariousFewerUps & DownsExperimentationNineteenNeatness Author:Chad Harbach
“Since it's fiction, the book resonates, at least for me, on various levels, some of which intimate ideas about history but none of which have the kind of directly causal reasoning you cite.” KindBookIdeasLevelsFictionVariousIntimateReasoningCiting Author:Rachel Kushner
“I more seriously considered publishing it under a pseudonym than I considered publishing it as fiction. I think the decision to write it as nonfiction happened at the very outset of the process, because the overwhelming impetus for writing this book was to understand what the experience meant, and to override my own reductions and rationalizations, whatever story I had that was not true. It didn't sit well with me and I needed to answer that. That's sort of the reason I write everything.” ThinkingWritingWellsBookReasonStoriesProcessMy OwnDecisionAnswersFictionHappenedNeededOverwhelmingNonfictionPublishingReductionImpetusPseudonyms Author:Melissa Febos
“When I write a book I write the best that I can and so much of that for me is following the book's demands, the subject's requirements - I love books, I always have. They have always been one of the places where I have felt very happy in the world. When I was younger, I loved to read genre fiction - I loved the magic-carpet ride of story! Now I need other things - I need the beautiful particular and strange language and form which brings a writer's book to life in me and speaks to my intellect, and, dare I say it, to my soul.” WorldNeedsWritingI CanBookSoulStoriesBeautifulFormSpeakLanguageFeltFictionMagicSubjectsParticularStrangeDemandFollowingDareIntellectMy SoulGenreRequirementsVery HappyCarpet Author:Micheline Aharonian Marcom
“Regarding fiction, our concern shouldn't be the author's origin (and of course I am forgetting the sales people right here), because that is actually merely a simplified, almost insulting judgment of the book by its cover - or rather by the name and origin of its author - an act of discrimination if we want to say it in a more provoking way, but at the least an act of ignorance and false empathy.” PeopleIfsWayWantBookCoursesNamesForgetFictionIgnoranceJudgmentEmpathyConcernDiscriminationProvokingInsultingSales People Author:Sasa Stanisic
“In some ways all of my fiction is like a conversation I'm having with the writers I read when I was first falling in love with books.” WayFirstsBookFallFictionConversationFalling In Love Author:Dan Chaon
“Utopian fiction is really boring. I had to read a lot of it, and it's not that much fun. But they're fascinating to me as historical documents. Cabet [Icaria's founder and author of the utopian novel, Travels in Icaria], is writing in the 1830s, and his idea of the perfect society reveals a lot about his time. But his book is uniquely bad.” WritingBookIdeasFunPerfectFictionNovelHistoricalBoringFascinatingFoundersDocumentsUtopianPerfect Society Author:Christine Jennings
“I definitely want to write some fiction, for sure. I already have half of the next book. I already have it all mapped out. I'm ready. I'm ready to bring it to the world.” WorldWantWritingBookNextHalfFictionReady Author:Moshe Kasher
“The main advantage of being a reviewer is that you read a lot. A lot of books get sent to you, and you have an amazing vantage point from which to observe what's going on in contemporary fiction - not only genre stuff, the whole spectrum.” BookWholeStuffFictionAdvantageContemporaryGenreSpectrumContemporary FictionReviewersVantage Point Author:Lev Grossman
“It is a work of psychogeography, albeit in a less explicit sense than Iain Sinclair's or Will Self's. It had to be fiction though, because I needed that freedom of including whatever belonged, and cutting out whatever didn't. The main fiction in it was matching Julius' generous and self-concealing character to New York's generous and self-concealing character. I think this also adds to my answer about New York's personality in the book.” ThinkingBookSelfCharacterAnswersFictionCuttingNew YorkPersonalityNeededAddIncludingGenerousExplicitMatchingJuliusConcealing Author:Teju Cole
“I'm grateful for the likes of Kundera, Murnane, Markson, Berger, and, in his recent work, Coetzee. But no matter how celebrated they are, critics still consider them askance. Elizabeth Costello, for example, is a great novel, but it got quite a critical panning when it was published. The complaint was that it was simply a book of speeches, without the machinery of conventional fiction. Markson's books are compilations of facts and alleged facts, very artfully.” StillsBookMatterFactsFictionNovelExampleSpeechGratefulCriticsCriticalLikesConventionalComplaintsMachineryGreat NovelsCompilationCoetzee Author:Teju Cole
“I love fiction because in fiction you go into the thoughts of people, the little people, the people who were defeated, the poor, the women, the children that are never in history books.” PeopleChildrenLittlesBookPoorFictionDefeatedHistory Books Author:Isabel Allende
“My fears are the obvious ones: that marketplace-minded publishers - all four of them - will shy further away from literary fiction, international authors, poetry, and the other marginal but hugely important regions of the book world.” WorldImportantBookFictionFourInternationalObviousRegionsShyPublishersMarketplace Author:David Edelstein
“I read a fair amount [of science fiction], and you know it was certainly inspirational. I have to pinch myself to think that we might be able to make some of [what I've read in science fiction books] come true.” ThinkingKnowsBookMightAbleFictionAmountFairsScience Fiction Author:Richard Branson
“My father taught me to love detective fiction writers such as Raymond Chandler. When I decided to have a hard-boiled detective series I did a lot of studying before I wrote the first book. I learned police procedure, the California criminal law, and many areas outside my expertise.” FirstsBookHardLawFatherFictionStudyTaughtAreasDecidedPoliceSeriesCriminalsCaliforniaProceduresDetectivesExpertiseFiction WritersCriminal LawDetective Fiction Author:Sue Grafton
“I was also a science fiction and fantasy fan, growing up, in games and books and movies. I love Tolkien and I love Dungeons & Dragons, so the opportunity to have a fantasy-based RTS, or real time strategy game, at that time, seemed cool. I started playing it, and the early games were simple, but fun and they had these great heroes.” BookRealOpportunityGamesFunSimpleFictionFantasyGrowing UpGrowingFansHeroStrategyScience FictionDragonsDungeonsBooks And MoviesGreat HeroScience Fiction And Fantasy Author:Duncan Jones
“I want to write some books. Books that have nothing to do with music, just some fiction type of books for a whole different audience of people.” PeopleWantWritingBookDifferentWholeFictionAudienceType Author:Jhene Aiko
“The best writing advice I ever got was "Keep moving forward, don't retreat into rewrites." The worst came from a book that said "Writing fiction is like telling lies," which just seems stupid to me.” WritingSaidBookSeemsMovingLyingFictionWorstAdviceStupidMoving ForwardRetreatKeep MovingKeep Moving ForwardWriting AdviceWriting FictionTelling Lies Author:David B. Coe