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Novel Quotes

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Novel Quotes

“Every novel presents a slice of life. A noir policier for example presents one slice, one that perhaps addresses social dysfunction or some sort of pathology, while mine present a slice that is more upbeat and affirmative.”

Social Novel Example Mines Addresses Noir Affirmative Dysfunction Pathology Upbeat Slice Of Life

Author:Alexander McCall Smith

“The Thieves of Manhattan is a sly and cutting riff on the book-publishing world that is quite funny unless you happen to be an author, in which case the novel will make you consider a more sensible profession-like being a rodeo clown, for example, or a crab-fisherman in the Bering Sea.”

World Book Happens Cases Novel Cutting Sea Example Profession Sensible Thieves Publishing Clown Manhattan Fisherman Sly Crabs Rodeo Book Publishing

Author:Carl Hiaasen

“It will be worthy of a free, enlightened, and, at no distant period, a great nation, to give to mankind the magnanimous and too novel example of a people always guided by an exalted justice and benevolence.”

People Giving States Nations Justice Novel Mankind Example Periods Worthy Enlightened Benevolence Exalted Great Nations Farewell Address Magnanimous

Book:Washington's Farewell Address to the People of the United States of America

Source: Washington's Farewell Address to the People of the United States of America

“The detective novel is the art-for-art's-sake of our yawning Philistinism, the classic example of a specialized form of art removed from contact with the life it pretends to build on.”

Art Form Novel Example Sake Contact Classic Detectives Yawning

Author:V. S. Pritchett

“I'm superstitious about the paper that I use, for example. I've written all my novels on a paper of a particular size with lines of a particular distance apart and with two holes in the paper for the folder clip.”

Two Use Lines Novel Written Example Particular Paper Distance Size Holes Superstitious Clip Folders Distance Apart

Author:Philip Pullman

“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.”

People Book Ends Levels Careers Novel Example Technique Setting Settings Metaphorical

Author:Kazuo Ishiguro

“Something we do know is that review coverage does go to male authors more than women authors. That's a fact. I think it's one of those examples of unconscious bias: If you hire a lot of male journalists, they're more likely to pick up the latest Ian McEwan novel than the latest A.S. Byatt novel.”

Ifs Thinking Knows Doe Facts Novel Example Picks Males Journalist Unconscious Reviews Bias Coverage

Author:Emma Donoghue

“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.”

Ifs Way Littles Book Different Stories Speak Language Sound Novel Example Sentences Dialogue Cinema Translate

Author:Yann Martel

“The novel is the highest example of subtle interrelatedness that man has discovered.”

Men Novel Example Highest Subtle Interrelatedness

Book:Delphi Complete Works of D.H. Lawrence (Illustrated)

Source: Delphi Complete Works of D.H. Lawrence (Illustrated)

“Writing a novel- actually picking the words and filling in paragraphs- is a tremendous pain in the ass. Now that TV's so good and the Internet is an endless forest of distraction, it's damn near impossible. That should be taken into account when ranking the all-time greats. Somebody like Charles Dickens, for example, who had nothing better to do except eat mutton and attend public hangings, should get very little credit.”

Should Writing Littles Pain Novel Taken Impossible Example Tvs Internet Accounts Credit Endless Forests Ass All Time Damn Distraction Filling Paragraph Dickens Ranking Filling In Mutton

Author:Steve Hely

“In terms of fiction, there are a number of writers who are thinking about the future of the environment whose work complements mine. Kim Stanley Robinson's novel 2312 is a great example, as is Tobias Buckell's novel Arctic Rising.”

Thinking Term Numbers Fiction Novel Environment Example Mines Rising Kim Arctic Complement Stanley Tobias Thinking About The Future

Author:Annalee Newitz

“Math-thinking, I would say, encourages flipping and substituting letters in words (in the novel, one of the boys double-majors in math and myth, for example, and his twin cracks a joke about the father's handwriting that morphs "cacography" into "dadography").”

Thinking Father Boys Novel Example Majors Jokes Letters Math Myth Cracks Twins Handwriting

Author:Mary Kay Zuravleff

“I'm grateful for the likes of Kundera, Murnane, Markson, Berger, and, in his recent work, Coetzee. But no matter how celebrated they are, critics still consider them askance. Elizabeth Costello, for example, is a great novel, but it got quite a critical panning when it was published. The complaint was that it was simply a book of speeches, without the machinery of conventional fiction. Markson's books are compilations of facts and alleged facts, very artfully.”

Stills Book Matter Facts Fiction Novel Example Speech Grateful Critics Critical Likes Conventional Complaints Machinery Great Novels Compilation Coetzee

Author:Teju Cole

“Biography always has fulfiled this role. Robinson Crusoe is a biography, as is Tom Jones. You can go through the whole range of the novel, and you will find it is biography. The only difference between one example and the other is that sometimes it's a partial biography and sometimes it's a total biography. Clarissa, for example, is a partial biography of Clarissa and a partial biography of Lovelace. In other words, it doesn't follow Lovelace from when he is in the cradle, though it takes him to the grave.”

Sometimes Whole Differences Roles Novel Example Graves Range Toms Biographies Cradle Robinson Crusoe

Author:William Golding