“I never know what's going to happen in a novel. I don't have a plan or an outline.” KnowsHappensNovelPlansOutlines Author:Donna Leon
“I've written short stories in first person, but you have so much more control writing in third person. Third person, you know what everybody's thinking. First person is very limiting, and I could never sustain a first person novel before.” ThinkingKnowsWritingFirstsPersonsStoriesNovelWrittenThirdsShort StoryFirst PersonThird PersonThinking First Author:Tamora Pierce
“You no longer have much in the way of knowing what to do in a big, epic novel about the future, because nobody knows what the hell is going to happen.” KnowsWayBigsHappensNovelHellKnowingEpicNobody KnowsKnowing What To Do Author:Jerry Pournelle
“You know, the point of a novel - or to me, the point of a novel, the gift of a novel is to go really deeply inside people's lives and inside their personal experiences.” PeopleKnowsNovelPersonal ExperiencesReally Deep Author:Curtis Sittenfeld
“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
“In some ways I'm a frustrated scientist or mathematician. The amount of times I've thought I'd go back to university and do theoretical physics because I like the big questions, but really I know now that that's not quite me. What's me is to do it in novels.” KnowsWayBigsNovelAmountScientistUniversityPhysicsFrustratedMathematicianTheoreticalBig QuestionsTheoretical Physics Author:Scarlett Thomas
“You know, I can imagine not writing a novel and writing poetry only.” KnowsWritingI CanNovelImagineWriting Poetry Author:Vikram Seth
“With any novel that you begin, you can't foresee how difficult or easy it's going to be, and you can't really prepare yourself. You just have a take it one step at a time and know that it's all right to keep going - you can always fix it.” KnowsEasyDifficultStepsNovelKeep GoingOne Step At A Time Author:Jane Smiley
“I am the outskirts of some non-existent town, the long-winded prologue to an unwritten book. I'm nobody, nobody. I don't know how to feel or think or love. I'm a character in a novel as yet unwritten, hovering in the air and undone before I've even existed, amongst the dreams of someone who never quite managed to breath life into me.” ThinkingKnowsFeelsLongBookCharacterDreamNovelKnow HowAirTownsBreathsNever QuitUndoneUnwrittenHoveringBook Of DisquietPrologue Book:The Book of Disquiet Source: The Book of Disquiet
“I know publishing now more as an author than with occasional peaks inside those elite offices than as an industry insider. It was difficult publishing a novel the first time around, while working behind the scenes, knowing all that has to happen to make a book a success and to still make the leap as an author.” KnowsFirstsStillsBookHappensDifficultBehindsNovelKnowingIndustrySceneOfficeFirst TimeLeapElitesPublishingOccasionalBehind The ScenesInsidersWorking Behind The Scenes Author:Jennifer Gilmore
“When you get inside a literary novel you feel that the author, more often than not, just doesn't know enough about things. They haven't been around enough - novelists never go anywhere. Once I discovered true books about real things - books like 'How To Run a Company' - I stopped reading novels.” KnowsFeelsBookRealEnoughRunningReadingCompanyNovelHavensNovelistsReal ThingsReading Novels Author:Peter York