“I would say that most of my books are contemporary realistic fiction... a couple, maybe three, fall into the 'historic fiction' category. Science fiction is not a favorite genre of mine, though I have greatly enjoyed some of the work of Ursula LeGuin. I haven't read much science fiction so I don't know other sci-fi authors.” KnowsBookFallThreeFictionHavensMinesCoupleScience FictionContemporaryEnjoyedGenreCategoriesRealisticSci FiHistoricRealistic Fiction Author:Lois Lowry
“However far fiction writers stray from their own lives and experiences - and I stray pretty far from mine - I think, ultimately, that we may be writing what we need to write in some way, albeit unconsciously.” ThinkingWayNeedsWritingMayFictionMinesFiction Writers Author:Wally Lamb
“With some exceptions in science fiction and other genres I have small difficulty in avoiding anything that could be called American literature. I feel it is unnatural, not I think entirely because it uses a language that is not mine, however closely akin to my own.” ThinkingFeelsUseLiteratureLanguageMy OwnFictionMinesDifficultyScience FictionGenreExceptionAvoidingUnnaturalAmerican Literature Author:Kingsley Amis
“We all have love stories that go terribly wrong; we all have horribly broken hearts. And somehow we endure. We're not destroyed by it. We endure and go on to do interesting things and have worthy lives, even though we carry our heartbreaks with us. That's a kind of personal story of mine that I don't think I would tell in memoir but I do think I can tell in fiction.” ThinkingHeartKindI CanStoriesInterestingFictionMinesBrokenGoes OnEndureWorthyLove StoryMemoirDestroyedInteresting ThingsPersonal Stories Author:Elizabeth Gilbert
“A friend of mine who writes history books said to me that he thought that the two creatures most to be pitied were the spider and the novelist - their lives hanging by a thread spun out of their own guts. But in some ways I think writers of fiction are the creatures most to be envied, because who else besides the spider is allowed to take that fragile thread and weave it into a pattern? What a gift of grace to be able to take the chaos from within and from it to create some semblance of order.” ThinkingWayWritingSaidTwoBookAbleOrderFictionGraceMinesCreaturesChaosPatternsNovelistsGutsFragileThreadSpidersEnviedSpunHistory BooksSemblance Author:Katherine Paterson
“Do I do as false prophets do and puff air into simulacra? Am I a Sorcerer--like Macbeth's witches--mixing truth and lies in incandescent shapes? Or am I a kind of very minor scribe of a prophetic Book--telling such truth as in me lies, with aid of such fiction as I acknowledge mine, as Prospero acknowledged Caliban.” KindBookLyingFictionAirMinesShapesAidsAcknowledgeProphetWitchMinorsMixingPropheticTruth And LiesPuffFalse ProphetsScribesCalibanProspero Author:A. S. Byatt
“A favorite science fiction writer of mine is William Faulkner! It was an idea that came to me once, years ago, and I've never quite been able to shake it. This is facetious, on one level at least. There are telepaths in As I Lay Dying. But I think the most compelling thing for me is there are moments with him where I just feel these are not humans talking to each other. These are some hyper-intelligent, yet-to-be-born organisms. The way they look at the past without having any loss of knowledge everything that ever happened is still here.” ThinkingWayFeelsYearsHumansLooksStillsIdeasMomentsAblePastBornLossLevelsFictionTalkingHappenedDyingMinesYears AgoIntelligentScience FictionLaysShakesCompellingOrganismsNever QuitFiction WritersHyperFacetious Author:Robert Reed
“I became much more interested in plot when I really didn't consider myself a writer anymore. When I was in an art context and I started to do installations, that was when writing of mine almost returned to fiction. Earlier I felt like I didn't have anything to write about, I could only concentrate on the page, I could only concentrate on words.” WritingArtFeltFictionMinesPagesPlotInstallation Author:Vito Acconci
“In terms of fiction, there are a number of writers who are thinking about the future of the environment whose work complements mine. Kim Stanley Robinson's novel 2312 is a great example, as is Tobias Buckell's novel Arctic Rising.” ThinkingTermNumbersFictionNovelEnvironmentExampleMinesRisingKimArcticComplementStanleyTobiasThinking About The Future Author:Annalee Newitz
“The facts, however, are unimportant in fiction. It's not the events of my life that I mine, but the emotional experiences I've had.” FactsFictionEventsEmotionalMinesUnimportant Author:John Dufresne
“As a fiction writer, that's been a preoccupation of mine: Can you really just close the door and leave the past back there behind you, or is the door going to blow open at some point?” PastBehindsFictionDoorsMinesBlowBehind YouPreoccupationFiction WritersLeaving The Past Author:Dani Shapiro
“I struggle with the fact that men's popular fiction is talked about differently. Books like mine don't get as many reviews and probably won't win any prizes, but they entertain the pants off of hundreds of thousands of women.” MenBookFactsWinningFictionStruggleMinesPrizeReviewsPants Author:Jennifer Weiner
“I have a process that I seem to always, to some degree, as a writer, adhere to, but I certainly have never imposed the way I write a novel on my students. When I had students, I never said, "You should never start writing a novel until you have the last sentence." I never did that, and I wouldn't do it now, but people now seem so interested in the process [of writing fiction] that I have to constantly make it clear when I describe mine that I'm not being prescriptive. I'm not proselytizing.” PeopleWayShouldWritingSaidSeemsLastsProcessFictionNovelClearStudentsMinesDegreesSentencesWriting FictionProselytizing Author:John Irving