“I write on a computer, but I've run the complete gambit. When I was very young, I wrote with a ballpoint pen in school notebooks. Then I got pretentious and started writing with a dip pen on parchment (I wrote at least a novel-length poem that way). Moved on to a fountain pen. Then a typewriter, then an electric self-correct. Then someone gave me a word processor and I was amazed at being able to fit ten pages on one of those floppy discs.” WayWritingSelfRunningAbleSchoolYoungNovelFitTenComputerPagesMovedLengthPensElectricAmazedFountainNotebookTypewritersPretentiousDipMoved OnDiscsProcessorsGambitFountain PensBallpoint Pens Author:Charles de Lint
“The constitutionality and propriety of the Federal Government assuming to enter into a novel and vast field of legislation, namely, that of providing for the care and support of all those ... who by any form of calamity become fit objects of public philanthropy. ... I cannot find any authority in the Constitution for making the Federal Government the great almoner of public charity throughout the United States. To do so would, in my judgment, be contrary to the letter and spirit of the Constitution and subversive of the whole theory upon which the Union of these States is founded.” StatesWholeGovernmentCareFormSpiritUnitedPowerUnited StatesSupportNovelFieldsObjectsTheoryFitAuthorityJudgmentLettersConstitutionAssumingUnionsCharityContraryWelfareProvidingPhilanthropyLegislationFederal GovernmentCalamitySubversivePropriety Author:Franklin Pierce
“I am persuaded that not a novel in ten thousand is of any use to a child to fit him for life. The most are of use only to unfit him -- to blunt his senses and infect him with the writers' poor silly sentiments. Nine out of ten novelists deserve to be prosecuted under an Adulterated Emotions Act.” ChildrenUsePoorEmotionNovelFitThousandTenDeserveSillySensesNineNovelistsSentimentsBlunt Author:Storm Jameson
“The idea that a student can write a sonnet or a novel without having a sound understanding about its history, and where it fits into literature as a whole, seems to me to be manifestly daft.” WritingIdeasWholeSeemsPoetryLiteratureUnderstandingSoundNovelStudentsFitSonnetDaft Author:Nicholas Royle
“Every novel deals with social problems. It can't help it because the protagonist must come in conflict with his group. So the author has to offer an analysis of how the group and the protagonist fit. Otherwise, the reader will just say, "This makes no sense," and will put it away.” HelpingProblemSocialDealsNovelGroupsReaderFitOffersConflictAnalysisProtagonistsSocial Problems Author:Jane Smiley
“While I was drawn to the Renaissance, my first (unpublished) novels took place in modern times. When the subject of alchemy started creeping into my stories, an astute mentor observed that the bits about alchemy might fit better in another time frame. When I finally decided to weave the pieces about the medieval science into historical settings, a successful novel began to emerge. (And I dusted off that art history book, and put it to use once again.)” FirstsArtBookStoriesUseMightBitsNovelSuccessfulPiecesModernSubjectsFitDecidedHistoricalSettingSettingsMentorMedievalRenaissanceAlchemyArt HistoryHistory BooksModern TimesAnother TimeAstute Author:Mary Pope Osborne
“Early on in life I knew that I was a writer, that I just wanted to write, I love books, I love literature and after graduating college, I kind of wandered around in Europe learning languages and writing novels and never led anywhere. And then I got into like journalism in New York as a way to kind of maybe find my way into the field and it wasn't a good fit. It just wasn't right for me.” WayWritingKindBookWantedLiteratureLanguageNovelNew YorkFieldsCollegeFitEuropeJournalismMy WayGraduatesCollege GraduatesLearning LanguageLove Literature Author:Robert Greene
“I look at albums like novels. If you write a really good scene or a really good moment, just because you wrote it, doesn't mean that it fits with the story that you're writing.” WritingMeanMomentsNovelFitScene Author:Patrick Stump
“The novel is a big space, and a lot can happen. Just think about the parts of your life. How do we account for our own contradictions? The only way to understand them is to let them exist, as truths that indicate something about character. People are built of elements that don't fit together - and the conflict of that is their essential drive.” PeopleThinkingCharacterTogetherNovelFitConflictContradiction Author:Rachel Kushner
“The role you've been ascribed in childhood can twist or break apart or seem outgrown, especially when you have your own family and begin to see your own childhood from a different angle. You remember. You reassess. I think that was the kernel of the novel for me. This idea that you change but that your family, the people you were born into, might find that change hard to accept. You no longer fit the mold you've always been ascribed. When the adult children in the book converge back on their small family home there's a sense that they don't fit there anymore.” PeopleThinkingChildrenBookDifferentHomeRememberAcceptingBreakNovelChildhoodFitOur Family Author:Maggie O'Farrell