“People think that they will sit down and produce the great American novel in one sitting. It doesn't work that way. This is a very patient and meticulous work, and you have to do it with joy and love for the process, not for the outcome.” PeopleThinkingWayJoyProcessNovelProduceSittingAnd LoveDown AndPatientOutcomesGreat AmericanMeticulous Author:Isabel Allende
“Over a four-month period, I sat down and wrote every day. And then there was a novel, and all of a sudden, there were agents and offers.” NovelFourMonthsPeriodsOffersDown AndAgentsSat Author:Melissa Marr
“In the second grade, I would just get bored and a joke would pop into my head and I would have to say it. It was almost like I had some brilliant novel in my head that I had to get down, and I would interrupt class all the time and get in trouble.” ClassNovelTroubleJokesDown AndPopsBrilliantBoredGrades Author:Anthony Jeselnik
“What I found interesting writing a screenplay as opposed to writing a novel is not the obvious thing, which is having to pare everything down and find the kind of essence, the skeleton if you like, which can then be fleshed out by performance and cinematography.” IfsWritingKindFoundInterestingNovelEssencePerformancesDown AndObviousScreenplaysSkeletonsCinematographyObvious Things Author:Salman Rushdie
“My mom wasn't, like, she was reading all these historical romance novels the majority of the time. She read a feminist book and then my dad would sit down and explain it to her like she was an idiot.” BookRomanceReadingNovelMomDadDown AndMajorityHistoricalMy DadFeministMy MomIdiotRomance Novel Author:Kathleen Hanna
“When Im writing a novel, which is what I like to write, I get up early, sit zazen, make a pot of green tea. I wear wrist cuffs to keep my wrists warm and minimize irritation from extended contact with the surface of my desk. I sit down and write.” WritingNovelDown AndGreenWarmSurfaceContactGet UpTeaPotDesksWristsUp EarlyIrritationCuffsGreen Tea Author:Ruth Ozeki
“A novel is like an animal you have to hunt down and kill. If you let it sit for two days, it's got a two-day head start. So, if I just look at it every day, I'm so much better off.” IfsLooksTwoAnimalNovelDown AndHuntsBetter OffTwo DaysHead Start Author:Daniel Alarcon
“Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. Sometimes you run over a drunk who's lain down and fallen asleep on the warm pavement. I mean, do you keep going, or what?” WritingMeanSometimesRunningNightNovelCarDown AndWarmDrivingDrunkFallenKeep GoingPavement Author:E. L. Doctorow
“I couldn't sit down and write a novel or a short story - even now - because of my dyslexia. But I learned narration through movies.” WritingStoriesNovelDown AndShort StoryNarrationDyslexia Author:Robert Benton