“[Vathek] has, in parts, been called, but to some judgments, never is, dull: it is certainly in parts, grotesque, extravagant and even nasty. But Beckford could plead sufficient "local colour" for it, and a contrast, again almost Shakespearean, between the flickering farce atrocities of the beginning and the sombre magnificence of the end. Beckford's claims, in fact, rest on the half-score or even half-dozen pages towards the end: but these pages are hard to parallel in the later literature of prose fiction.” EndsHardFactsLiteratureHalfFictionJudgmentPagesClaimsLocalsSufficientColourDullProseScoreDozenContrastNastyParallelsAtrocitiesExtravagantGrotesqueMagnificenceFarce Author:William Thomas Beckford
“I think it's just too kinda juicy and compelling to imagine people in their private lives, but then half the time people's private lives are just so much more bizarre and Ted Haggard-like than you could ever imagine. It's almost hard to write fiction anymore.” PeopleThinkingWritingHardHalfFictionImagineCompellingBizarrePrivate LifeJuicyHaggard Author:Jerry Stahl
“An intelligent man or woman willing to make a career of reviewing fiction is hard to come by ... And the temporaries do the work cheaply. Moreover, continuity may be got at the expense of intellectual arthritis; a reviewer who has been at his grisly task for half a lifetime may stiffen into prejudices of every sort, and become too anchylosed to do better than turn his back to a new wave when it rushes down on him.” MenMayHas BeensHardTurnsHalfFictionCareersWillingIntellectualTasksPrejudiceIntelligentLifetimeCriticsWaveExpensesContinuityReviewersIntelligent ManArthritis Author:Storm Jameson
“The human race will disappear. Other races will appear and disappear in turn. The sky will become icy and void, pierced by the feeble light of half-dead stars. Which will also disappear. Everything will disappear. And what human beings do is just as free of sense as the free motion of elementary particles. Good, evil, morality, feelings? Pure 'Victorian fictions'. Only egotism exists.” HumansFeelingsLightTurnsEvilStarsHuman BeingsRaceHalfFictionSkyMoralityPureDisappearHuman RaceVoidParticlesEgotismVictorianIcyGood Evil Author:H. P. Lovecraft
“No one can write a best-seller by taking thought. The slightest touch of insincerity blurs its appeal. The writer who keeps his tongue in his cheek, who knows that he is writing for fools and that, therefore, he had better write like a fool, makes a respectable living out of serials and novelettes; but he will never make the vast, the blaring, half a million success. That comes of blended sincerity and vitality.” KnowsWritingHalfFictionMillionsFoolTongueAppealsSincerityCheeksVitalityRespectableSerialsBlurSellersInsincerityBest Sellers Author:Rebecca West
“Probably the best way to describe my writing style is to refer you to "purple prose", which was a tag given to the early mass market magazine writers earning a half cent a word for their fiction. They had to use every adjective, verb and adverb in the English language to add word count to stories in order to feed and support families.” WayWritingStoriesUseOrderLanguageGivenHalfFictionSupportStyleMassAddBest WayMagazinesProseCentsEarningPurpleEnglish LanguageVerbsTagAdjectivesWriting StyleAdverbs Author:Tom Johnson
“With the historical fictions, I was already doing so much research, and so much of the stories was anchored by historical truth that the move to nonfiction didn't feel all that dramatic - just another half-step to the right.” FeelsStoriesMovingHalfFictionStepsResearchHistoricalDramaticHistorical FictionNonfictionHistorical Truth Author:Debra Dean
“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
“My work is very eclectic. I write books that range from writing fiction, writing fable where I am very directly trying to imagine alternate worlds, to writing about [Buckminster] Fuller who was the ultimate world man creating all sorts of alternate worlds and believing that they were imminent to my own work of - for instance, a project that I've been working on for some year and a half, two years now that continues to evolve has been what I call Deep Time Photography.” MenWorldWritingTryingYearsBelieveHas BeensTwoBookMy OwnHalfFictionImagineProjectsCreatingPhotographyUltimateInstanceEvolveRangeTwo YearsFablesFiction WritingWriting FictionEclecticBuckminster Fuller Author:Jonathon Keats
“One of my favourite contemporary fiction writers is a Texan, Ben Fountain. His extraordinary novel, Billy Lynn's Long Half-Time Walk, all takes place within the half-time show at a Dallas Cowboys football game. No one has better summed up the American appetite for spectacle, the link between sports and politics, and the absolute madness of George W. Bush's Iraq War.” LongWarShowsGamesSportsWalksHalfFictionNovelFootballMadnessAbsolutesExtraordinaryIraqContemporaryLinksAppetiteFavouriteCowboyFountainIraq WarFiction WritersDallasContemporary FictionFootball GameTexanHalf TimeDallas Cowboy Author:Adam Hochschild