Best fiction & novel Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings Page 2

“The short story is at an advantage over the novel, and can claim its nearer kinship to poetry, because it must be more concentrated, can be more visionary, and is not weighed down (as the novel is bound to be) by facts, explanation, or analysis. I do not mean to say that the short story is by any means exempt from the laws of narrative: it must observe them, but on its own terms.”

Mean Facts Stories Law Term Fiction Novel Advantage Claims Bounds Narrative Analysis Explanation Poetry Is Short Story Visionaries Kinship

Book:Stories

Source: Stories

“It was the ponderous battering ram of his novels that opened the way through the genteel reticences of American nineteenth-century fiction. . . Without [Theodore] Dreiser's treading out a path for naturalism none of us would have had a chance to publish.”

Way Chance Fiction Novel Path Century Publish Nineteenth Century Naturalism Rams Treading Theodore Reticence Battering

Book:The Best Times: An Informal Memoir

Source: The Best Times: An Informal Memoir

“A bad short story or novel or poem leaves one comparatively calm because it does not exist, unless it gets a fake prestige throughbeing mistaken for good work. It is essentially negative, it is something that has not come through. But over bad criticism one has a sense of real calamity.”

Doe Real Stories Fiction Novel Negative Criticism Calm Fake Working It Short Story Good Work Mistaken Calamity Prestige Literary Criticism

Book:The Strange Necessity: Essays and Reviews

Source: The Strange Necessity: Essays and Reviews

“The ratio of authentic literature to trash in pornography may be somewhat lower than the ratio of novels of genuine literary meritto the entire volume of sub-literary fiction produced for mass taste. But it is probably not lower than, for instance, that of another somewhat shady sub-genre with a few first-rate books to its credit, science fiction.”

Firsts May Book Literature Fiction Novel Taste Mass Science Fiction Rate Credit Genuine Instance Genre Volume Pornography Trash Ratios Shady

Author:Susan Sontag

“F.R. Leavis's "eat up your broccoli" approach to fiction emphasises this junkfood/wholefood dichotomy. If reading a novel--for theeighteenth century reader, the most frivolous of diversions--did not, by the middle of the twentieth century, make you a better person in some way, then you might as well flush the offending volume down the toilet, which was by far the best place for the undigested excreta of dubious nourishment.”

Source: Expletives Deleted: Selected Writings

“Reading Tomato Red-the first Daniel Woodrell novel I came upon-was a transformative experience. It expanded my sense of the possibilities not only of crime fiction, but of fiction itself-of language, of storytelling. Time and again, his work just dazzles and humbles me. God bless Busted Flush for these glorious reissues. It's a service to readers everywhere, and a great gift.”

Firsts Reading Language Fiction Novel Crime Possibility Reader Red Storytelling Glorious Bless God Bless Crime Fiction Tomatoes Great Gifts Dazzle Busted

Author:Megan Abbott

“I certainly incorporate facts into my fiction. I take the basic facts from the life of my subject and I pick and choose what to use to construct a really interesting novel. I don't let facts get in the way of my imagination and my exploration of the subject's emotions and relationships.”

Way Facts Use Imagination Interesting Emotion Fiction Novel Subjects Picks Exploration Constructs My Imagination Really Interesting

Author:Melanie Benjamin

“My dad was always such a frustrated artist. He always worked very hard to support his family, doing a bunch of ridiculous jobs. He wanted to be a painter, but then he also wrote science-fiction novels in his spare time. He was always so frustrated having to work to support the family that I was like, I'm never going to do that. I don't want to just be working a menial job to support my family and dreaming of being an artist. We learn from our fathers in that way.”

“A fiction which is designed to inculcate an object wholly alien to the imagination sins against the first law of art; and if a writer of fiction narrow his scope to particulars so positive as polemical controversy in matters ecclesiastical, political or moral, his work may or may not be an able treatise, but it must be a very poor novel.”

Ifs Firsts May Art Matter Able Law Political Imagination Sin Poor Fiction Moral Novel Objects Aliens Controversy Scope

Author:Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton

“I read secular fiction, but also enjoy novels with a Christian worldview.”

Christian Enjoy Fiction Novel Secular Worldview Christian Worldview

Author:Randy Alcorn

“I'm not a sociologist, and the novel has often concerned itself with sociology. It's one of the generating forces that's made fiction interesting to people. But that's not my concern. I'm interested in psychology. And also certain philosophical questions about the world.”

People World Made Certain Force Interesting Fiction Novel Psychology Concern Concerned Philosophical Sociology Sociologists Philosophical Questions

Author:Jonathan Lethem

“My first and last love will always be fiction. It's the first thing I do in the morning and the last thing I do at night. I love the novel because it's like a love affair. You can just fall into it and keep going, and you never know where it's going to take you.”

Knows Firsts Lasts Night Fall Fiction Morning Novel Affair Keep Going Love Affair Firsts And Lasts

Author:Daniel Alarcon

“There are some varieties of fiction that I never touch - mystery stories, for instance, which I abhor, and historical novels. I also detest the so-called "powerful" novel - full of commonplace obscenities and torrents of dialog.”

Stories Powerful Fiction Novel Mystery Historical Instance Variety Commonplace Detest Obscenity Historical Novels

Book:Strong opinions

Source: Strong opinions

“I'd be surprised if non-fiction writers hate to be interviewed. We all hate them, because there's really nothing to say except "Read the book." Right? At least with non-fiction, you can kind of convey some information, and people can decide for themselves whether they want more of that kind of information. But with a novel, what am I going to do?”

People Ifs Want Kind Book Hate Fiction Novel Information Non Fiction Fiction Writers

Author:Jonathan Franzen

“Fiction writing is an act of imagination, lived experience is secondary in many ways, writing a novel really is all about inventing worlds and people.”

People World Way Writing Imagination Fiction Novel Inventing Fiction Writing

Author:Ayana Mathis

“My advice is to write about what you are interested in. If you read science fiction and fantasy, then write in that genre. If you read romance novels, then try writing one.”

Ifs Writing Trying Romance Fiction Fantasy Novel Advice Science Fiction Genre Romance Novel Science Fiction And Fantasy

Author:Michael Scott

“In novels you're able to occupy character's internal thoughts and it's really hard to do in a film or a TV show. When you're reading a character's thoughts or when it's in first person, you're reading kind of their own story, so you have the opportunity to see what makes that character complex or complicated. And to me that's what the whole point of fiction is.”

Firsts Kind Persons Hard Whole Character Stories Shows Able Film Reading Opportunity Fiction Novel Tvs Complexes Complicated Internals Tv Shows First Person

Author:Joe Meno

“If my setting is new to a reader, or the concerns of the novel are new, I hope they will learn something about the world. I would like to say that they can trust that what they do learn in the novel will be accurate, because I pay a lot of attention to facts. I do a lot of research to make sure that I'm not giving them, you know, blue moons of Jupiter. It's not science fiction.”

Ifs Knows World Giving Facts Pay Attention Fiction Novel Reader Moon Research Concern Blue Science Fiction Setting Settings Accurate Jupiter Blue Moon

Author:Barbara Kingsolver

“I think that when people read fiction, they're really reading for wisdom. I am. That's what most of us really love. If we read a novel that rocks our world, it's because there's something in it that we didn't know already. Not just information but really wisdom - sort of what to do with our information. And wisdom comes from experience.”

People Ifs Thinking Knows World Reading Fiction Novel Rocks Information Our World

Author:Barbara Kingsolver

“I sometimes joke that I am the first writer of historical fiction who can look out his window and point to the objects in his novels. I have a view of the entrance to the Bosporus, the old city, Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque.”

Firsts Looks Sometimes Views Cities Fiction Novel Objects Jokes Window Blue Historical Historical Fiction Entrances Mosques Sophia

Author:Orhan Pamuk

“Many great authors of the 19th century wrote under conditions of strict censorship. The great thing about the art of writing a novel, is that you can write about anything. All you have to say is that it's fiction.”

Writing Art Fiction Novel Conditions Century Great Things Censorship Strict 19th Century Art Of Writing Great Author

Author:Orhan Pamuk

“It's just the garbage in/garbage out trick. If you're not taking any fiction in, good or bad, then how can you be spitting any back out (good or bad)? I can't even imagine trying to write without reading. Really, I can hardly write a novel at all if I'm not reading just book after book.”

Ifs Writing Trying I Can Book Reading Fiction Novel Imagine Tricks Garbage

Author:Stephen Graham Jones

“I read fiction all the time. It's true that I don't like fantasy or science fiction. I like "realistic" novels, particularly those in which nothing much ever happens.”

Happens Fiction Fantasy Novel Science Fiction Realistic

Author:Gustavo Perez Firmat

“I began to write fiction on the assumption that the true enemies of the novel were plot, character, setting and theme, and having once abandoned these familiar ways of thinking about fiction, totality of vision or structure was really all that remained.”

Source: A John Hawkes symposium: design and debris

“Before I was reading science fiction, I read Hemingway. Farewell to Arms was my first adult novel that said not everything ends well. It was one of those times where reading has meant a great deal to me, in terms of my development - an insight came from that book.”

Firsts Wells Said Book Ends Reading Term Deals Fiction Novel Arms Development Adults Science Fiction Insight Farewell Farewell To Arms Farewell Love

Author:Robert Reed

“The subject of a novel is not the plot. Who remembers what happened to Lucien de Rebempre in the end?”

Ends Remember Fiction Novel Happened Subjects Plot

Author:Graham Greene

“As strange as this may sound, I very seldom read fiction. Because my novels require so much research, almost everything I read is non - fiction - histories, biographies, translations of ancient texts.”

May Sound Fiction Novel Strange Research Ancient Biographies Translations Non Fiction

Author:Dan Brown

“An important factor to note is that it's rare for anyone to sell a first novel written before they turned 30-35; long-format fiction tends to require a bunch of experience of human life that takes time to acquire. So your average mid-career novelist is in their forties to fifties!”

Firsts Humans Long Important Fiction Careers Novel Written Sells Notes Average Bunch Factors Human Life Novelists Acquire Forty Take Time Format

Author:Charles Stross

“Speech recognition is utterly crap for writing fiction. If you try reading a novel aloud you'll soon figure out why - written prose style is utterly unlike the spoken word.”

Ifs Writing Trying Reading Fiction Novel Written Style Figures Speech Recognition Prose Crap Writing Fiction Spoken Word

Author:Charles Stross

“We don't really know how technology will affect narrative. That's the question. See, people used to say that the novel is going to die, but they would never say that movies will die with it, when in fact all forms depend on the narrative. I think if one of them fails, the others are going to fail as well. Maybe this will happen to both forms, and maybe movies will take a totally different direction with fiction.”

People Ifs Thinking Knows Wells Different Facts Happens Form Used Dies Fiction Technology Novel Know How Failing Depends Narrative Different Directions

Author:Don DeLillo

“There is a set of balances and rhythms to a novel that we can't experience in real life. So I think there is a sense in which fiction can rescue history from confusion.”

Thinking Real Fiction Novel Balance Real Life Confusion Rhythm Rescue

Author:Don DeLillo

“Just as art brings you to another place, so does religion - and to ask questions of factuality tends to reduce both. If you say you were inspired by a novel, that implies that your book is a work of fiction.”

Ifs Doe Art Book Asks Fiction Novel Inspired

Author:Yann Martel

“I wasn't aware I'd write the novel when I wrote the New Yorker story either. And the narration of their construction in 10:04 is fiction, however flickering.”

Writing Stories Fiction Novel Construction New Yorkers Narration

Author:Ben Lerner

“Experiments with the "as if" of fiction are often more lively in poetry and criticism and other modes of writing than in weak short stories or novels.”

Ifs Writing Stories Fiction Novel Criticism Weak Experiments Short Story Lively

Author:Ben Lerner

“Read non-fiction. History, biology, entomology, mineralogy, paleontology. Get a bodyguard and do fieldwork. Find your inner fish. Don't publish too soon. Not before you have read Thomas Mann in any case. Learn by copying, sentence by sentence some of the masters. Copy Coetzee's or Sebald's sentences and see what happens to your story. Consider creative non-fiction if you want to stay in South Africa. It might be the way to go. Never neglect back and hamstring exercises, otherwise you won't be able to write your novel. One needs one's buttocks to think.”

“When I am writing fiction, I believe I am much better organized, more methodical - one has to be when writing a novel. Writing poetry is a state of free float.”

Writing Believe States I Believe Fiction Novel Organized Poetry Is Floats Novel Writing Writing Fiction Writing Poetry Methodical

Book:Waltzing Again: New and Selected Conversations with Margaret Atwood

Source: Waltzing Again: New and Selected Conversations with Margaret Atwood

“I'm not interested in making a diagnostic novel or a concern. I'm 100 percent committed in fiction to the pleasure principle - that's what fiction is, and should be.”

Should Pleasure Fiction Principles Novel Percent Concern Committed Not Interested

Author:Martin Amis

“You should spend more time with your families; write that novel you've always wanted to write. You know, the one about the fearless reporter who stands up to the administration. You know - fiction.”

Knows Should Writing Wanted Fiction Novel Administration Fearless Our Family More Time Reporters

Author:Stephen Colbert

“With a historical novel you know that liberties are being taken. Since Walter Scott, we know that poetic license, dramatic license, that events been conflated and that liberties have been taken, characters ditto, dates rearranged. But people don't seem to understand that movies are fictions, they are dramatizations, at least historical movies, and we should accord the moviemakers some of the same understanding and latitude. When you go to a movie you know it's a dramatization and not history.”

People Knows Should Has Beens Character Seems Understanding Fiction Liberty Novel Taken Events Historical Dramatic Poetic License Accord Latitude Historical Novels Poetic License

Author:Nicholas Meyer

“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.”

“Wrote a science fiction novel about a man who wins an argument with his wife, but it was rejected for being too farfetched.”

Men Winning Fiction Novel Wife Argument Science Fiction Rejected Fiction Novels

Author:Dana Gould

“Going from memoir to fiction was fantastic. I had been afraid to move away from memoir; I'd written some novel drafts, but they weren't well received by my agent at the time, and it had been drilled into me that "memoir outsells fiction two to one" (not sure if that's true anymore, or if it ever was), so I felt like the only smart thing to do, professionally, was to keep mining my life for painful moments to recapitulate.”

Ifs Wells Two Moments Moving Felt Fiction Novel Written Smart Painful Memoir Agents Fantastic Things To Do Not Sure Mining Painful Moments

Author:Janice Erlbaum

“What I find interesting and heartening, though, is that there does seem to be a shift in the subject matter being written about by women that is doing well in the culture. We're seeing more women writing dystopian fiction, more women writing novels set post-apocalyptic settings, subjects and themes that used to be dominated by men.”

“I read anything I could get my hands on: science fiction, fantasy, horror, thrillers. I even became hooked on the Bantam reprints of the old pulp novels from thirties and forties: Doc Savage, The Shadow, The Avenger.”

Hands Fiction Fantasy Novel Horror Shadow Science Fiction Forty Savages Thrillers Hooked Pulp Avengers

Author:James Rollins

“I really have to think of the things fiction can do that film can't and play to the strengths of the novel. With a novel you can get right inside somebody's head.”

Thinking Play Film Can Do Fiction Novel

Author:Kazuo Ishiguro

“There's a difference between doing memoir and writing a novel. If I had put the story of the boy killing my dog - and that was Eric also, what a little monster he was! - in a novel, even if I took it directly from life, it would be fiction.”

Ifs Writing Littles Stories Would Be Differences Fiction Boys Novel Dog Killing Monsters Memoir My Dog Eric Doing Me

Author:Paul Auster

“I often give this metaphor where I say that writing short fiction is like surfing, while writing a novel is like navigating with your car. So when you navigate with your car, you want to get somewhere. When you surf, you don't want to get somewhere, you just don't want to fall off your board.”

Want Giving Writing Fall Fiction Novel Car Metaphor Boards Surfing Surf Navigate Writing Short

Author:Etgar Keret

“So much history, if you or I were to write it, could seem a fiction. These separations, these lines that tell us this is fiction or non-fiction, that this is history or this is a novel, are often useless.”

Ifs Writing Seems Lines Fiction Novel Separation Useless Non Fiction

Author:Jamaica Kincaid

“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.”

Ifs Writing Said Book Done Feelings Jobs Fiction Moral Cases Novel Havens Particular Reader Pages Territory Factories Sausage Bland Stranded

Author:Dave Abrams

“For me, the historical and genealogical library is the one I use. I'm working on, I'll say, it's a time travel novel. I haven't written very much of it. That's the dirty secret of the Cullman center: The writers don't write their fiction there, they just do their research.”

Writing Use Secret Fiction Novel Written Havens Research Historical Library Dirty Time Travel Dirty Secrets

Author:Andrew Sean Greer

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