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Novel Quotes

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Novel Quotes

“The summer I finished my first novel Ghana Must Go, I drove across west Africa: from Accra to Lomé to Cotonou to the deliciously named Ouagadougou.”

Firsts Novel Summer West Finished Ghana West Africa

Author:Taiye Selasi

“The opening novel of the 'Bayou Trilogy' was the first one I finished.”

Firsts Novel Finished Opening Trilogies Bayou

Author:Daniel Woodrell

“The book is finished by the reader. A good novel should invite the reader in and let the reader participate in the creative experience and bring their own life experiences to it, interpret with their own individual life experiences. Every reader gets something different from a book and every reader, in a sense, completes it in a different way.”

Way Should Book Different Individual Novel Creative Reader Finished Different Ways Invites Life Experience Individual Life

Author:Alan Lightman

“The solution to the novel's legal problem is a satisfyingly intricate one, and nobody will want his money back on the plot. But the echoes that will remain in your mind after you've finished Reversible Errors will mainly have to do with the novel's other elements.”

Want Mind Problem Novel Elements Solutions Errors Finished Plot Echoes Intricate

Author:Wendy Lesser

“The Buccaneers was an Edith Wharton novel, and she never finished it, and a screenwriter adapted it for television.”

Novel Television Finished Adapted Screenwriters Buccaneers

Author:James Frain

“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.”

Action Political Culture Novel Rich Sitting Finished Aliens Subtle Intrigue Fast Paced Intricate Characterization

Author:Robin Wayne Bailey

“I have this very moment finished reading a novel called The Vicar of Wakefield [by Oliver Goldsmith].... It appears to me, to be impossible any person could read this book through with a dry eye and yet, I don't much like it.... There is but very little story, the plot is thin, the incidents very rare, the sentiments uncommon, the vicar is contented, humble, pious, virtuous--but upon the whole the book has not at all satisfied my expectations.”

Littles Persons Book Whole Moments Stories Eye Reading Novel Impossible Expectations Humble Finished Satisfied Dry Plot Sentiments Virtuous Incidents Pious Uncommon Vicars

Author:Fanny Burney

“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.”

“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.”

Ifs Thinking Way May I Can Book Different Character Helping Novel Particular Sitting Spending Finished Shelves Insignificant Spending Time Tweak

Author:Jillian Medoff

“Like most writers, I look back on all of my finished works with utter regret, and the trouble with writing a series of novels is that you have to go back and read them, and make sure that you haven't forgotten anything you've created, and then when you do that, you're faced with your own mistakes on every trick, from the wrong word in places to entirely the wrong incident.”

Writing Looks Mistake Novel Trouble Havens Regret Series Forgotten Finished Tricks Incidents Finished Work Wrong Words

Author:Daniel Handler

“My second novel, "Good Benito", was not finished. I wished that I had spent another year with it.”

Years Novel Finished Another Year

Author:Alan Lightman

“I was in love with a whirlwind, so when the girl threw me over, I went home and finished my novel.”

Home Girl Novel Finished Whirlwind

Book:The Complete Works of F. Scott Fitzgerald: Novels, Short Stories, Poetry, Articles, Letters, Plays & Screenplays: From the author of The Great Gatsby, The Side of Paradise, Tender Is the Night, The Beautiful and Damned, The Love of the Last Tycoon, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and many other notable works

Source: The Complete Works of F. Scott Fitzgerald: Novels, Short Stories, Poetry, Articles, Letters, Plays & Screenplays: From the author of The Great Gatsby, The Side of Paradise, Tender Is the Night, The Beautiful and Damned, The Love of the Last Tycoon, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and many other notable works

“Yeah, I just finished a novel. Man those things take forever to read.”

Men Novel Forever Yeah Finished

Author:Martin Mull

“Novels are completed when they are finished, but the memoir changes its own conclusion by virtue of being written... I was not at all the same person, when I handed the manuscript to the publisher, as I had been when I began. A memoir may always be retrospective, but the past is not where its action takes place.”

May Persons Action Past Novel Virtue Written Finished Memoir Conclusion Publishers Manuscripts Retrospective

Author:Nuala O'Faolain

“When I look back over my novels what I find is that when I think I'm finished with a theme, I'm generally not. And usually themes will recur from novel to novel in odd, new guises.”

Thinking Looks Novel Finished Odd Theme Guise

Author:Richard Russo

“There's never any humongous next draft. I know a writer who every time he finished a novel - you would know his name very well - but his editor would come and live with him for a month. And they would go through the manuscript together.”

Knows Wells Together Next Names Novel Months Finished Editors Manuscripts

Author:Dean Koontz

“When you're depressed, you know, it's like the world has ended. Even getting out of bed takes the most massive amount of effort. But when you're manic, oh, it's so addicting. You know, I have finished novels in two weeks in manic stages.”

Knows World Two Effort Novel Week Stage Amount Bed Finished Massive Two Weeks Manic

Author:Sherman Alexie

“My first book published in France was translated and titled Exercices d'Attente in 1972. It was a collection of short works written and published in Romania. In 1973 I was ready to publish the novel Arpièges, which I had started writing in Romanian and of which I had published some fragments under the title Vain Art of the Fugue. Some years later, I finished Necessary Marriage.”

Writing Years Firsts Art Book Novel Written Ready Finished France Vain Titles Collections Fragments Publish Romania Fugue

Author:Dumitru Tepeneag

“I kept going back while I was writing the novel - which never sold, may it rest in peace - and by the time it was finished I had too many connections to Haiti to walk away.”

Writing May Walks Novel Connections Finished Haiti Rest In Peace

Author:Ben Fountain

“You work for so long on a graphic novel that it's easy to question your ideas or to burn out on drawing. But you plug away at it and trust in the story you want to tell. It's a marathon, but the finished product is really satisfying.”

Want Long Ideas Stories Easy Novel Products Finished Drawing Satisfying Marathon Graphic Plugs Burn Out Graphic Novels

Author:Vera Brosgol