“My first novel was turned down by half a dozen publishers. And even after having published five or six books, I wasn't making enough money to live on, and was beginning to think I'd have to give up the dream of being a full-time writer.” ThinkingGivingFirstsBookEnoughDreamHalfNovelFiveGiving UpSixDozenPublishersTurned Down Author:Ian Rankin
“The funny thing about me is I'm kind of schizophrenic, because after four or five nights in a row of going out to parties, I just have to be alone. I hate people and feel like they're keeping me from what I really want to do, like write a fabulous novel, which I probably never will.” PeopleWantFeelsWritingKindNightHatePartyNovelFiveFourI HateGoing OutFabulousFunny ThingsHate PeopleSchizophrenicI Hate People Author:Bob Colacello
“One novel in five hundred or a thousand has the quality a novel should have to make it a novel -- the quality of philosophy.” ShouldPhilosophyQualityNovelFiveThousandHundredShould HaveGolden Notebook Book:The Golden Notebook Source: The Golden Notebook
“I write short stories. They may appear big in size, but when you consider it, they're four or five novels in one... In return for picking up one of my books, I'm trying to give them value for their money... the goal of writing any book is to create the illusion that what you are reading is reality and you're part of it.” GivingWritingTryingMayBookStoriesBigsRealityValuesReadingGoalNovelFiveFourReturnIllusionSizeShort Story Author:James Clavell
“I tend to be pretty efficient with my time. I work on a novel for four to five hours a day, and then the rest of my day is spent doing other things, whether it's spending time with my family, or going through and making notes on the script, or working on the marketing. It's just a matter of scheduling.” MatterHoursNovelFiveFourMy FamilyNotesMarketingScriptsSpendingMy TimeEfficientSpending TimeScheduling Author:Nicholas Sparks
“The novel is about five students of classics who are studying with a classics professor, and they take the ideas of the things that they're learning from him a bit too seriously, with terrible consequences.” IdeasLiteratureBitsNovelStudyFiveStudentsTerribleConsequenceProfessors Author:Donna Tartt
“I work continuously within the shadow of failure. For every novel that makes it to my publisher's desk, there are at least five or six that died on the way. And even with the ones I do finish, I think of all the ways they might have been better.” ThinkingWayHas BeensMightNovelFiveSixShadowDiedDesksPublishersMight Have Been Author:Gail Godwin
“[President Johnson] had the political will to say that having one in five Americans living in the kind of abject conditions their fellow citizens associated with Third World countries and the novels of Dickens was as dangerous as any battlefield enemy.” WorldKindCountryPoliticalPresidentEnemyPovertyNovelFiveConditionsDangerousCitizensThirdsFellowsJohnsonBattlefieldsThird WorldDickensPolitical WillThird World CountriesPresident Johnson Author:Anna Quindlen
“Believe it or not, I sold my first novel, Crank, with only seventy-five pages complete. It was in verse then, and it was hard-hitting then.” FirstsBelieveHardNovelFivePagesVersesHittingSeventiesCrank Author:Ellen Hopkins
“I've written 16 children's books and five unpublished novels. Some of the latter were breathtakingly bad.” ChildrenBookNovelFiveWrittenLatterChildren's Books Author:Mark Haddon
“As to the number of novels I've abandoned... I shudder to think. I have thrown away five completed novels, and that's a gruesome enough figure. But not necessarily a waste of effort.” ThinkingEnoughNumbersEffortNovelFiveFiguresWasteThrownAbandonedWaste Of Effort Author:Mark Haddon
“A novelist writes a novel, and people read it. But reading is a solitary act. While it may elicit a varied and personal response, the communal nature of the audience is like having five hundred people read your novel and respond to it at the same time. I find that thrilling.” PeopleWritingMayReadingNovelAudienceFiveHundredResponseNovelistsSolitaryThrilling Author:August Wilson
“I had a novel in the back of my mind when I won an Ian St James story competition in 1993. At the award ceremony an agent asked me if I was writing a novel. I showed her four or five chapters of what would become 'Behind the Scenes at the Museum' and to my surprise she auctioned them off.” IfsWritingMindStoriesBehindsNovelFiveFourSceneCompetitionSurpriseAgentsAwardsMuseumsChaptersCeremonyOf My MindBehind The ScenesAward Ceremonies Author:Kate Atkinson
“If you are working in an office, where do you find the time to write a novel? But you can finish a short story in five pages. Furthermore, a short story is a perfect place to learn the craft” IfsWritingStoriesPerfectNovelFiveOfficePagesCraftsShort Story Author:Ben Okri
“I think not in two or three dimensional terms but in five dimensional terms when I consider a novel. There's height, width, and depth, there's the time factor, and then there's the factor which I call the cerebral factor of the reader, the way the reader adjusts to all the other dimensions, which is the fifth dimension.” ThinkingWayTwoThreeTermNovelFiveReaderDepthFactorsHeightDimensionsFifthCerebralWidth Author:Richard Grossman
“I use things, I steal things from my life when I want to, when I need to, or when it seems appropriate. But most of the stuff in my novels is entirely invented, ninety-five percent. And even when I do borrow something, it becomes fictionalized.” WantNeedsUseSeemsStuffNovelFivePercentStealingAppropriateNinety Author:Paul Auster
“Sophie [Kinsella]'s writing just captivated me. We bought this eight years ago, before it became an international success and was only one book. Now there's five. So, we were very fortunate to latch onto a character who has since become an international success both as a novel and hopefully now as a movie.” WritingYearsBookCharacterNovelFiveYears AgoInternationalEightHopefullyFortunateSophieCaptivatedLatches Author:Jerry Bruckheimer
“I'm working on different fields. One of my next books Insha'Allah will be a novel because it's important to explore the heart and imagination, the spiritual side. I've been working for twenty five years in the legal field and now I'm reaching what I want, which is an Islamic applied ethics and I'm also dealing with Muslims in the West.” WantYearsHeartImportantBookDifferentSpiritualNextSidesImaginationNovelFiveFieldsEthicsTwentiesWestIslamicFive YearsReachingTwenty Five Author:Tariq Ramadan