“I think predictability is built into any good novel in some way - you begin reading Anna Karenina and you know pretty much what's going to happen at the end. But that doesn't mean you know what's going to happen in the middle. For me, it's that sense of what happens in the middle that's important.” ThinkingKnowsWayMeanImportantEndsHappensReadingNovelMiddleBuiltAnnaPredictability Author:Scarlett Thomas
“The single most important technique for making progress is to write ten words. Doesn't matter if you're badly stuck, or your day is completely jam-packed, or you're away from your computer - carry a small paper notebook and write a sentence of description while you're waiting on line at a coffee shop. I think of this as baiting a hook. Even if you have a few days in a row where nothing comes except those ten words, I find that as long as you have to think about the novel enough to write ten words, the chances are that more will come.” IfsThinkingWritingLongImportantMatterEnoughWaitingLinesChanceNovelProgressTenPaperComputerSentencesTechniqueCoffeeStuckShopsDescriptionHookJamChances AreNotebookCoffee Shop Author:Naomi Novik
“The best novels are those that are important without being like medicine; they have something to say, are expansive and intelligent but never forget to be entertaining and to have character and emotion at their centre.” ImportantCharacterForgetEmotionNovelIntelligentMedicineNever ForgetEntertainingCentre Author:Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
“People really want to think that these things really happened. I don't know why that is important, but I know that when I finish reading a novel or something, I want to know how much of that really happened to this author.” PeopleThinkingKnowsWantImportantBookReadingNovelKnow HowHappened Author:Alison Bechdel
“It's a given that we exist in a world where we have to live in continuity every day; no one is immune to that, in life or romance novels. By the same token, it's not something I find terribly important.” WorldImportantRomanceGivenNovelContinuityImmuneRomance NovelTokens Author:Neil Gaiman
“This novel has it all--mystery, psychological insight, emotional truth, and--most important--characters whose lives matter. You'll fall in love with these families. Solti writes with such passion it is inescapable, lyrical, and profoundly moving. The Forgetting Tree goes on my top ten list.” WritingImportantMatterCharacterMovingFallPassionForgetNovelMysteryTreeEmotionalGoes OnTenFalling In LoveInsightListsPsychologicalLyrical Author:Jonis Agee
“It's so easy to get into the same routine. A novel every two years; perhaps, improving technique. But I'm not interested in that. I'm interested in doing something fundamentally important--and therefore, it needs time. And what I've been doing, really, is avoiding this pressure to get into the habit of one novel a year. This is what is expected of novelists. And I have never been really too much concerned with doing what is expected of novelists, or writers, or artists. I want to do what I believe is important.” WantNeedsWritingYearsBelieveTwoImportantArtistI BelieveEasyNovelToo MuchHabitConcernedPressureExpectedTechniqueNovelistsTwo YearsRoutineNot InterestedImprovingAvoidingEasy To GetTime Of Need Author:Chinua Achebe
“After the initial critical learning period of youth is over, the areas of the brain that need to be 'turned on' to allow enhanced, long lasting learning can only be activated when something important, surprising, or novel occurs, or if we make the effort to pay close attention.” IfsNeedsLongImportantEffortPayAttentionBrainKnowledgeNovelYouthPeriodsAreasCriticalLastingSurprisingInitialsLong Lasting Author:Norman Doidge
“The thing is that my first novel, which was basically a mystery adventure story, won quite an important award in Spain for young adult fiction, and because of this it became a very successful book, and right now it's some sort of a standard title, it's read widely in many high schools in Spain, so I think, in a way, I was a victim of my own success in the field of young adult fiction, because it was never my own natural register. I never intended to write that kind of fiction, but I became very successful at it.” ThinkingWayWritingFirstsKindImportantBookStoriesSchoolYoungNaturalMy OwnFictionNovelSuccessfulMysteryFieldsAdventureRight NowStandardsHigh SchoolAdultsVictimYoung AdultTitlesAwardsSpainRegister Author:Carlos Ruiz Zafon
“I think What Dreams May Come is the most important (read effective) book I've written. It has caused a number of readers to lose their fear of death the finest tribute any writer could receive. ... Somewhere In Time is my favorite novel.” ThinkingMayImportantBookDreamLosesNumbersNovelWrittenReaderMy FavoriteFinestFear Of DeathTributeSomewhere In Time Author:Richard Matheson
“Oh, how few find time for prayer! There is time for everything else, time to sleep and time to eat, time to read the newspaper and the novel, time to visit friends, time for everything else under the sun, but-no time for prayer, the most important of all things, the one great essential!” ImportantPrayerSleepNovelSunEssentialsAll ThingsNewspapersEnd TimesTime To Sleep Author:Oswald J. Smith