“I don't base my books on my life (thank goodness) and I don't pick the topic first. In fact, the topic picks me - via a question I can't answer as a mom, a wife, a woman, an American. I find myself wondering "What if..." and it blossoms into a whole novel.” IfsFirstsI CanBookWholeFactsAnswersWonderNovelWifeMomGoodnessPicksWhat IfTopicsIfs AndPick MeWondering What If Author:Jodi Picoult
“I don't write the same book over and over - I think if I did that, I would stop writing. I couldn't write a series with the same character, and I couldn't write a romance novel over and over again that takes place at a different beach every year. That's not who I am.” IfsThinkingWritingYearsBookDifferentCharacterRomanceNovelSeriesWho I AmBeachRomance Novel Author:Jodi Picoult
“I am drawn to writing books about magic and the supernatural because those are the types of books I like to read. I've written many short stories with realistic settings, and I certainly wouldn't rule out realistic novels in the future!” WritingBookStoriesNovelWrittenMagicTypeSettingSettingsRealisticShort StoryWriting A Book Author:Cassandra Clare
“When I write a novel, I have what I think of as an icon that helps get me into the world of the book.” ThinkingWorldWritingBookHelpingNovelIcons Author:Anna Quindlen
“I don't talk about my books while I'm writing them: not even my husband knows what a novel's about until it's done.” KnowsWritingBookDoneNovelHusbandMy Husband Author:Sarah Dessen
“I don't make movies. I don't feel that I have to have artistic control. Part of this comes from the fact that the book lives on no matter what Hollywood does to your novel in terms of a film. Now, you try to be careful who you allow to do your film because nobody wants their novel to become a turkey movie. But, on the other hand, it is a crapshot anyway, because even the best people can make a bad film.” PeopleWantFeelsTryingDoeBookMatterFactsHandsFilmTermNovelHollywoodNo Matter WhatCarefulArtisticBe CarefulTurkeys Author:Stephen King
“I didn't have a list of things I should do this year, next year, find a good novel, sign two stars and make a deal - because I think cinema should come from cinema. I never adapted anything. Beautiful books are beautiful books, that's it. I don't know why we should transform them.” ThinkingKnowsShouldYearsTwoBookBeautifulNextStarsDealsNovelListsCinemaNext YearAdaptedBeautiful Books Author:Agnes Varda
“Throughout my career I've struggled to encourage people to read my books on a more metaphorical level. I'm less attached to my settings than, for example, Saul Bellow. The setting of a novel for me is just a part of the technique. I choose it at the end.” PeopleBookEndsLevelsCareersNovelExampleTechniqueSettingSettingsMetaphorical Author:Kazuo Ishiguro
“As an author, one of the most important things I think you can do once you've written a novel is step back. When the book is out, it belongs to the readers and you can't stand there breathing over their shoulders.” ThinkingImportantBookCan DoStepsNovelWrittenReaderImportant ThingsShouldersBreathingBack When Author:Madeline Miller
“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.” IfsWritingTryingI CanBookReadingFictionNovelImagineTricksGarbage Author:Stephen Graham Jones
“I couldn't decide on a title for my first novel and my editor came up with Everything Good Will Come. After that, I thought I should name my own books.A Bit of Difference seems just right.” ShouldFirstsBookSeemsNamesBitsDifferencesMy OwnNovelTitlesEditorsGood Will Author:Sefi Atta
“My novels are never truly finished, even if they're published and sitting on the shelf. While I may no longer be interested in spending time with that particular set of characters, I can't help but think about all the ways the book could be different, the small, insignificant tweaks that no one but me would ever notice.” IfsThinkingWayMayI CanBookDifferentCharacterHelpingNovelParticularSittingSpendingFinishedShelvesInsignificantSpending TimeTweak Author:Jillian Medoff
“The process for writing a picture book is completely different from the process of writing a chapter book or novel. For one thing, most of my picture books rhyme. Also, when I write a picture book I'm always thinking about the role the pictures will play in the telling of the story. It can take me several months to write a picture book, but it takes me several years to write a novel.” ThinkingWritingYearsBookDifferentPlayStoriesProcessRolesNovelOne ThingMonthsTake MeChaptersRhymeAlways ThinkingPicture Books Author:Sarah Weeks
“The book is almost always better than the movie. You could have no better case in point than FROM HELL, Alan Moore's best graphic novel to date, brilliantly illustrated by Eddie Campbell. It's hard to describe just how much better the book is. It's like, "If the movie was an episode of Battlestar Galactica with a guest appearance by the Smurfs and everyone spoke Dutch, the graphic novel is Citizen Kane with added sex scenes and music by your favourite ten bands and everyone in the world you ever hated dies at the end." That's how much better it is.” IfsWorldBookEndsHardDiesSexCasesNovelHellCitizensSceneBandTenAppearanceAssHatedSpokesGuestsFavouriteEpisodesBad AssGraphicDutchGraphic NovelsCitizen KaneSmurfBattlestar Galactica Author:Warren Ellis
“With a novel, which takes perhaps years to write, the author is not the same man he was at the end of the book as he was at the beginning. It is not only that his characters have developed-he has developed with them, and this nearly always gives a sense of roughness to the work: a novel can seldom have the sense of perfection which you find in Chekhov's story, The Lady with the Dog.” MenGivingWritingYearsBookEndsCharacterStoriesNovelDogPerfectionInsightfulShort StoryChekhovRoughnessWriting Short Stories Book:Collected Stories Source: Collected Stories
“The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid.” InspirationalPersonsBookHumorFunnyReadingPleasureNovelStupidGentlemanClassicEpicJaneRomance NovelBooks And ReadingPleasure Of ReadingReading NovelsReading For PleasureBest Novel Book:Jane Austen: 8 Books in 1 Source: Jane Austen: 8 Books in 1
“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.” FirstsWellsSaidBookEndsReadingTermDealsFictionNovelArmsDevelopmentAdultsScience FictionInsightFarewellFarewell To ArmsFarewell Love Author:Robert Reed
“Writing a film - more precisely, adapting a book into a film - is basically a relentless series of compromises. The skill, the "art," is to make those compromises both artistically valid and essentially your own. . . . It has been said before but is worth reiterating: writing a novel is like swimming in the sea; writing a film is like swimming in the bath.” WritingHas BeensArtSaidBookFilmNovelSeaSkillsArt IsSeriesCompromiseCraftsSwimmingBathsRelentlessAdapting Author:William Boyd
“Imagine a world in which no writer has written a literary novel in sixty years. Imagine a place where not a single person has read a book that is truly about the character at its center.” WorldYearsPersonsBookCharacterNovelImagineWrittenSixtySingle Person Author:Adam Johnson
“Our life is a book that writes itself and whose principal themes sometimes escape us. We are like characters in a novel who do not always understand what the author wants of them.” WantWritingBookSometimesCharacterLife IsNovelOur LivesThemePrincipal Book:Diary, 1928-1957 Source: Diary, 1928-1957
“I know many older writers who were very successful and whose books are now out of print, so you have to go to antiquarian booksellers to buy their fifth or eighth novel or whatever it is.” KnowsBookNovelSuccessfulPrintFifthBooksellers Author:William Boyd
“I have to read comic books all first, because now when you get into graphic novels, they are definitely in deep graphic.” FirstsBookNovelComicComic BookGraphicGraphic Novels Author:Virginia Madsen
“While writing a novel I almost completely stop reading books in the same sub-genre for the duration.” WritingBookReadingNovelGenreReading BooksDuration Author:Charles Stross
“I try to write books that are different from the books I've already written. I think one of the thing I really try to do is reinvent how a novel can be written.” ThinkingWritingTryingBookDifferentNovelWritten Author:James Frey
“Read. Read. Read. Read. Read great books. Read poetry, history, biography. Read the novels that have stood the test of time. And read closely.” BookNovelTestsBiographiesGreat BookTest Of Time Author:David McCullough
“"The Diagnosis" is by far my most ambitious book. I such great hopes for it... there was so much I wanted to do with the book. I was extremely insecure about it for several years. Just didn't know whether I would finish the book much less for it to come close to what I intended. I think that for any novel you never know exactly how the book is going to turn out...” ThinkingKnowsYearsBookWantedTurnsNovelAmbitiousInsecureDiagnosisGreat Hope Author:Alan Lightman
“Books and novels in particular that grapple with quite a few things are difficult to explain, so I think that first line can come in a substitute for trying to form a longer sense of what the book is about.” ThinkingTryingFirstsBookFormDifficultLinesNovelParticularSubstitutes Author:Alice Sebold
“What works in a story is very different than what works in cinema. For example, dialogue in books: If you translate it too faithfully, it sounds a little stilted, because we often don't speak the way we speak in novels. Oral language is much punchier, shorter sentences.” IfsWayLittlesBookDifferentStoriesSpeakLanguageSoundNovelExampleSentencesDialogueCinemaTranslate Author:Yann Martel
“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.” IfsDoeArtBookAsksFictionNovelInspired Author:Yann Martel
“As a kid, my brother and I would read the same novel, we'd memorize entire pages, reenact the book as it's characters, and would immerse in playing like that for hours. I suppose it was a natural follow up, wanting to still play in a similar fashion, but as an adult.” StillsBookPlayCharacterKidsHoursNaturalNovelFashionBrotherPagesAdultsMy BrotherFollow Up Author:Irena A. Hoffman
“I have found that the characters in my novels stay with me after a book has ended. I know them in some sense. I never map anything out. I just think until I am secure in the voice of one of them, and then let the character unfold.” ThinkingKnowsBookCharacterFoundVoiceNovelSecureMapsStay With Me Author:Marilynne Robinson
“I can't wait for everyone to read 'Don't Look Back.' It's something very different for me, my first romantic suspense novel, so I'm very excited to be sharing the book, finally.” FirstsLooksI CanBookDifferentWaitingNovelExcitedSuspenseSuspense Novels Author:J. Lynn
“A book is basically just symbols arranged to form this story, this world. But on the other hand, books, novels, literature in general, is what shows us at our most human.” WorldHumansBookStoriesShowsHandsFormLiteratureNovelThis WorldSymbols Author:Shane Warren Jones
“Few real people appear in my two novels, actually. "Ari" appears on the edge of this book a couple of times - but on the edge, she's never in it, even if she's a determining force from the outside. Everybody in the first book was basically made up, if never from scratch.” PeopleIfsFirstsMadeTwoBookRealForceNovelCoupleEdgesScratches Author:Ben Lerner
“Suppose there were an experience machine that would give you any experience you desired. Superduper neuropsychologists could stimulate your brain so that you would think and feel you were writing a great novel, or making a friend, or reading an interesting book. All the time you would be floating in a tank, with electrodes attached to your brain. Should you plug into this machine for life, preprogramming your life experiences?...Of course, while in the tank you won't know that you're there; you'll think that it's all actually happening...Would you plug in?” ThinkingKnowsGivingFeelsShouldWritingBookWould BeCoursesReadingInterestingBrainNovelHappeningsMachinesLife ExperienceFloatingTanksPlugsGreat NovelsInteresting Book Book:Anarchy, state, and utopia Source: Anarchy, state, and utopia
“All my life I have been reading romance novels. Those stupid books ruined me. I've always wanted that fire that every book I ever read talks about.” Has BeensBookWantedRomanceReadingNovelFireStupidRuinedRomance Novel Author:Aurora Rose Reynolds
“That partially due to the world of media and commerce, the idea of a comic book has been lost in the ghetto, whereas the graphic novel is now being held up as something to aspire to and as something that's respectable for adults to read.” WorldHas BeensBookIdeasLostNovelMediaAdultsDuesComicCommerceComic BookAspireRespectableGraphicGhettoGraphic Novels Author:Adrian Tomine
“You start to get nervous when the value of a comic book or graphic novel is relative to the achievements of some other medium.” BookValuesNovelAchievementMediumsNervousComicRelativeComic BookGraphicGraphic Novels Author:Adrian Tomine
“Travel books are all sorts - some are autobiographies, some are about falling in love. Some are about having great meals, some are about suffering. There are as many different kinds of travel books as there are novels. People think a travel book is one thing. It's many things.” PeopleThinkingKindBookDifferentSufferingFallNovelOne ThingFalling In LoveMealsDifferent KindsAutobiographyTravel Books Author:Paul Theroux
“One of the great things about writing a series is that with each book, the novel is meant to stand alone on its own legs, but also to bring along those loyal readers who become attached to the characters over the years.” WritingYearsBookCharacterNovelReaderSeriesLegsGreat ThingsLoyalStand Alone Author:Linda Fairstein
“The most powerful words in English are 'Tell me a story,' words that are intimately related to the complexity of history, the origins of language, the continuity of the species, the taproot of our humanity, our singularity, and art itself. I was born into the century in which novels lost their stories, poems their rhymes, paintings their form, and music its beauty, but that does not mean I had to like that trend or go along with it. I fight against these movements with every book I write.” WritingMeanDoeArtBookStoriesFormHumanityFightingLostLanguageBornPowerfulNovelCenturyMovementPaintingSpeciesRelatedComplexityMost PowerfulTrendsRhymeContinuitySingularityPowerful Words Author:Pat Conroy
“Well, part of it is the general fascination with the Amish. It's an extremely popular genre and Beverly Lewis just happens to have the market cornered. She is the bestselling author in this genre. We had actually optioned another one of her Amish books, The Redemption of Sarah Cain. We retitled it Saving Sarah Cain and it did extremely well for Lifetime so we pursued more of her novels.” WellsBookHappensNovelLifetimeRedemptionSavingGenreFascinationPursuedCainAmishCornered Author:Michael Landon, Jr.
“To AMC's credit, I think what they saw was the show doesn't exist in the marketplace. They knew that there was a hunger for a martial arts show. They also knew that you have this strong tradition of martial arts cinema, so even though it's not branded by a novel or a comic book or an old movie or something, we do have the genre itself, which people love.” PeopleThinkingArtBookShowsStrongNovelSawsTraditionHungerCreditComicGenreCinemaMartial ArtsComic BookMarketplaceBrandedOld Movie Author:Alfred Gough
“I look at the film without any music or sound. I try to grasp the story from the screenplay. I try to write to the novel or book if there is one. I try to create music that's honest and true to my heart for the story.” IfsWritingTryingLooksHeartBookStoriesFilmSoundNovelHonestMy HeartScreenplays Author:Howard Shore
“It's very bad to write a novel by act of will. I can do a book of nonfiction work that way - just sign the contract and do the book because, provided the topic has some meaning for me, I know I can do it. But a novel is different. A novel is more like falling in love. You don't say, 'I'm going to fall in love next Tuesday, I'm going to begin my novel.' The novel has to come to you. It has to feel just like love.” KnowsWayFeelsWritingI CanBookDifferentFallNextCan DoNovelLove YouFalling In LoveContractsNonfictionTopicsTuesdayI Can Do ItLike LoveFeels Just Author:Norman Mailer
“When I was young I longed to write a great novel that should win me fame. Now that I am getting old my first book is written to amuse children.” ShouldWritingFirstsChildrenBookYoungWinningNovelWrittenFameGetting OldGreat Novels Author:L. Frank Baum
“When one starts writing a book, especially a novel, even the humblest person in the world hopes to become Homer.” WorldWritingPersonsBookNovelWriting A Book Author:Umberto Eco
“I wouldn't have filmed The Color Purple if the book had been a big fat novel. The reason I read it is because it is thin.” IfsBookReasonBigsNovelColorFatsPurple Author:Steven Spielberg
“...book-buyers aren't attracted, by and large, by the literary merits of a novel: book-buyers want a good story...something that will first fascinate them, then pull them in and keep them turning the pages.” WantFirstsBookStoriesNovelPagesMeritGood StoryBuyersLiterary Merit Author:Stephen King
“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.” WritingYearsKindChildrenBookHardRunningRememberRoomsFictionMillionsNovelWrittenCoupleYears AgoEmptyWestI RealizedJournalismSatPensAwardsNon FictionScreenwritersChildren's Books Author:Naomi Foner Gyllenhaal