“I'm not a big crime reader, but I'm reading Michael Connelly's 'The Reversal.' I'm going back to his novels. I'm also reading Keith Richards' 'Life.' I'm always fascinated by the transition from the innocent late '60s and early '70s and the youth culture becoming an industry.” BigsCultureReadingNovelCrimeYouthIndustryReaderBecomingLateInnocentTransitionFascinatedKeithReversalYouth Culture Author:Jo Nesbo
“I am one of the writers who wish to create serious works of literature which dissociate themselves from those novels which are mere reflections of the vast consumer cultures of Tokyo and the subcultures of the world at large.” WorldCultureLiteratureWishNovelSeriousReflectionMereConsumersTokyoSubcultureConsumer CultureSerious Work Author:Kenzaburo Oe
“I have long admired the visceral storytelling and moral complexity of John Vaillant’s brilliant non-fiction about humankind’s tragically ambivalent relationship with the natural world. Now he brings his abundant literary gifts to a debut novel set in a very real borderland in which human beings are themselves treated like animals. The Jaguar’s Children is a beautifully rendered lament for an imperiled culture and the brave lives that would preserve it. You should read it.” WorldShouldHumansChildrenLongRealCultureNaturalHuman BeingsAnimalFictionMoralNovelBraveBrilliantTreatedStorytellingPreservesComplexityHumankindNatural WorldNon FictionLamentVisceralDebutAmbivalentJaguars Author:John Burnham Schwartz
“My current novel, Pallas, is all about that culture war - in fact it's been called the Uncle Tom's Cabin of the Sagebrush Rebellion - and yet what I hear all too often from libertarians is that they don't read fiction.” WarFactsCultureFictionNovelCurrentsLibertarianRebellionTomsUnclesCabinsUncle Tom Author:L. Neil Smith
“The truth is, everything we know about America, everything Americans come to know about being American, isn't from the news. I live there. We don't go home at the end of the day and think, "Well, I really know who I am now because the Wall Street Journal says that the Stock Exchange closed at this many points." What we know about how to be who we are comes from stories. It comes from the novels, the movies, the fashion magazines. It comes from popular culture.” ThinkingKnowsWellsEndsStoriesHomeAmericaCultureNovelStreetsFashionWallTruth IsNewsWho I AmMagazinesWho We AreThe End Of The DayJournalPopular CultureStock ExchangeWall Street JournalFashion Magazines Author:Chris Abani
“THE ABULON DANCE is an intricate and fast-paced novel of political intrigue and clashing alien cultures. The characterizations are rich, detailed, and subtle, the action engrossing. I finished it in a single sitting.” ActionPoliticalCultureNovelRichSittingFinishedAliensSubtleIntrigueFast PacedIntricateCharacterization Author:Robin Wayne Bailey
“In a culture defined by shades of gray, I think the absolute black and white choices in dark young adult novels are incredibly satisfying for readers.” ThinkingYoungChoicesCultureBlackDarkWhiteNovelReaderAdultsAbsolutesYoung AdultDefinedGrayShadeSatisfyingBlack And WhiteShades Of Gray Author:Maggie Stiefvater
“We live in a cluttered culture, a culture of information in which even our computers can't tell us what's worth knowing and what is merely cultural scrap. In such a society, we don't have the experience of contemplative space, of the time or mood to engage a book of poetry or even read a novel. Who can achieve the unconscious-conscious state of the reader when everything is stimulation, everything is movement and information?” BookStatesCultureSpaceNovelKnowingAchieveInformationMovementReaderComputerConsciousMoodUnconsciousScrapContemplativeStimulation Author:T.C. Boyle
“I've just finished a series of Olivia Manning novels. She's best known for two trilogies: Balkan Trilogy and Levant Trilogy. The six novels are continuous and contain the same set of characters. They are based on Manning's experiences in Eastern Europe and Egypt during the Second World War. Each novel is a wonderful picture of the peculiar British expatriate culture and what was happening during the war. She's one of those brilliant women who write very well about domestic relationships. All the books are slim, and it's easy to gallop through them.” WorldWritingWellsTwoBookWarCharacterCultureEasyKnownNovelWonderfulSixHappeningsEuropeSeriesBritishFinishedBrilliantWar Of The WorldsPeculiarEgyptEasternSecond World WarSlimEastern EuropeTrilogiesBalkansOliviaExpatriates Author:Sarah Waters
“When you read a fantasy novel part of the fun is getting to explore a new world. Everyone knows that. But I believe the same is true about characters. You can explore interesting people in the same way that you explore a town or a culture.” PeopleKnowsWorldWayBelieveCharacterCultureFunI BelieveInterestingFantasyNovelTownsNew WorldFantasy Novels Author:Patrick Rothfuss
“As well as Japanese animation, technology has a huge influence on Japanese society, and also Japanese novels. It's because before, people tended to think that ideology or religion were the things that actually changed people, but it's been proven that that's not the case. Technology has been proven to be the thing that's actually changing people. So in that sense, it's become a theme in Japanese culture.” PeopleThinkingWellsHas BeensCultureCasesTechnologyNovelInfluenceChangedHugeIdeologyThemeProvenAnimationJapanese CultureJapanese Animation Author:Mamoru Oshii
“If any art form can accommodate contemporary culture, it's the novel. It's so malleable - it can incorporate essays, poetry, film. Maybe the challenge for the novelist is to stretch his art and his language, to the point where it can finally describe what's happening around him.” IfsArtFilmFormCultureLanguageChallengesNovelHappeningsContemporaryNovelistsEssaysAccommodate Author:Don DeLillo
“Self-reinvention is an essential trope of the American project, closely linked to another such trope: going on the lam. Both are regularly featured in movies and novels and suchlike. Criminals and persons loitering with and without intent hold a crucial place in the culture. For obvious reasons, the culture cannot endorse this behavior, even as it is in thrall to it.” PersonsSelfReasonCultureNovelEssentialsBehaviorProjectsObviousCriminalsCrucialLinkedReinventionTropes Author:Luc Sante
“Toronto may be the only city where novels are integral to high art, the alternative scene and mainstream culture all at the same time.” MayArtCultureCitiesNovelSceneAlternativesMainstreamTorontoHigh ArtMainstream Culture Author:Stephen Marche
“The act of migration puts into crisis everything about the migrating individual or group, everything about identity and selfhood and culture and belief. So if this is a novel about migration it must be that act of putting in question. It must perform the crisis it describes.” IfsCultureIndividualBeliefNovelGroupsIdentityCrisisMigration Author:Salman Rushdie
“Poems, novels - these things belong to the nation, to the culture and the people. They've been stolen from the people and now the stolen things are being returned to their owners, but I don't think their owners should be grateful to receive them.” PeopleThinkingShouldCultureNationsNovelGratefulOwnersBe GratefulStolen Author:Joseph Brodsky
“I think poets are supposed to be writing for television and film. I grew up in the day of early TV that was so raw and funny, and I think we're in the next important moment of television, where it's really telling the epic of the culture like Charles Dickens was doing in the 19th century with his serialized novels.” ThinkingWritingImportantMomentsFilmCultureNextNovelCenturyTelevisionPoetTvsGrewGrew UpSupposed To BeEpic19th CenturyDickensImportant Moments Author:Eileen Myles
“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.” MenWritingWellsDoeMatterSeemsUsedCultureInterestingFictionNovelWrittenSeeingSubjectsSettingUsed To BeSettingsPostsThemeDystopianSubject MatterApocalypticDystopian FictionPost Apocalyptic Author:Laurie Foos
“We do seem, as a culture, to fetishize the "sweep." But I know there's room for "big" short, fierce novels, and "big" solid ones.” KnowsBigsSeemsCultureRoomsNovelFierce Author:Meg Wolitzer
“The Neapolitan novels have a lot of references to things outside, to things of the world, to culture, politics, the city of Naples. People have mentioned that Naples is like a character in the novels.” PeopleWorldCharacterCultureCitiesNovelNaples Author:Ann Goldstein
“As a matter of fact, I constantly tell audiences all over the world that the single greatest icon of American culture from the publication of "To Kill A Mockingbird" was that novel so that if we say, what conversation can we have that would lead us on a road of tolerance, and teachers have decided that if you're going to teach values in a school in America, the answer that American teachers at all kinds of schools have come up with, just let Harper Lee teach "To Kill A Mockingbird." And then all the teacher has to do is stand back and guide the discussion.” IfsWorldKindMatterFactsSchoolAmericaValuesCultureAnswersTeachNovelAudienceTeacherConversationDecidedCome UpGuidesToleranceAll KindsDiscussionAmerican CultureIconsPublicationMatter Of FactHarperMockingbirdKill A Mockingbird Author:Wayne Flynt