“When you write a novel, there’s a level at which you are much more revealing about who you are because you’re less self-conscious about how you’re presenting yourself. You are accidentally leaving your DNA all over everything in a novel because it’s all coming from you.” WritingSelfLevelsNovelConsciousWho You AreLeavingDnaRevealingSelf ConsciousPresentingPresenting Yourself Author:Elizabeth Gilbert
“The writing of a novel or short story or poem or whatever should elevate the audience, not drag the writer down to some level beneath herself. And she - the author - should fight always to prevent that dragging down, especially when the only possible benefit of allowing it to happen is monetary.” ShouldWritingStoriesHappensFightingLevelsNovelAudienceBenefitsAllowingShort StoryDragMonetary Author:Caitlín R. Kiernan
“Today the crime novelist has one advantage denied to writers of 'straight' or 'literary' novels. Unlike them he can range over all levels of society, for crime can easily breach the barriers that exist in our stratified society. Because of these barriers the modern literary novel, unlike its 19th-century predecessors, is often confined to the horizontal, dealing only with one class. But crime runs through society from top to bottom, and so the crime novelist can present a fuller picture of the way we live now.” WayBookRunningTodayLanguageLevelsClassNovelModernCenturyCrimeAdvantageBottomRangeNovelistsBarriersDeniedConfined19th CenturyPredecessorsBreachHorizontal Book:Life & Letters: The Spectator Columns Source: Life & Letters: The Spectator Columns
“Nicole Baart has written a novel that satisfies on every level. Sleeping In Eden is a compelling mystery, a tragic love story, a perceptive consideration of the callous whim of circumstance and, perhaps most important, a beautiful piece of prose. I guarantee this is a book that will haunt you long after you've turned the last page.” LongImportantBookStoriesLastsBeautifulSleepLevelsNovelPiecesWrittenMysteryCircumstancesPagesLove StoryProseGuaranteesConsiderationTragicCompellingEdenWhimSleeping InCallousNicoleThis Is A Book Author:William Kent Krueger
“Deep attention, the cognitive style traditionally associated with the humanities, is characterized by concentrating on a single object for long periods (say, a novel by Dickens), ignoring outside stimuli while so engaged, preferring a single information stream, and having a high tolerance for long focus times. Hyper attention is characterized by switching focus rapidly among different tasks, preferring multiple information streams, seeking a high level of stimulation, and having a low tolerance for boredom.” LongDifferentHumanityLevelsAttentionNovelFocusStyleInformationObjectsPeriodsLowsTasksSeekingToleranceEngagedStreamsBoredomMultipleStimulusConcentratingCognitiveHigh LevelDickensStimulationHyperSwitching Author:N. Katherine Hayles
“A major boom in real stock prices in the US after Black Tuesday brought them halfway back to 1929 levels by 1930. This was followed by a second crash, another boom from 1932 to 1937, and a third crash. Speculative bubbles do not end like a short story, novel, or play. There is no final denouement that brings all the strands of a narrative into an impressive final conclusion. In the real world, we never know when the story is over.” KnowsWorldRealEndsPlayStoriesBlackLevelsNovelMajorsThirdsFinalsConclusionNarrativeReal WorldShort StoryBubblesCrashImpressiveHalfway1930sTuesdayStrandsStock PriceDenouement Author:Robert J. Shiller
“I had an idea for a medical conspiracy thriller. Since it was non-horror, I didn't want the publishers and editors bringing a lot of baggage - my history as a genre writer in the SF and horror fields, for instance - to the novel when they read it. I wanted them to consider the book solely on its own merits. So I called myself Colin Andrews. I was tired of seeing my books at floor level. Not that Herman Wouk and Phyllis Whitney and William Wharton are bad company, but I wanted to be up at eye level for a change, where people with bad backs could get a chance to see my books.” PeopleWantBookIdeasEyeWantedChanceLevelsCompanyNovelSeeingFieldsHorrorTiredMedicalInstanceGenreMeritEditorsConspiracyPublishersThrillersBaggageAndrewWhitneyBad Company Author:F. Paul Wilson
“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.” PeopleBookEndsLevelsCareersNovelExampleTechniqueSettingSettingsMetaphorical Author:Kazuo Ishiguro
“[My novels] introduce levels of intelligence ... moral doubt [and] self-doubt, which may not pertain [to real-world espionage].” WorldMayRealSelfLevelsMoralNovelDoubtReal WorldIntroducingEspionageSelf-doubt Author:John le Carre
“You, and in fact quite a lot of your generation, have in some way been exiled from that particular sanctuary. It's become almost impossible for someone to "go mad" in the classical sense. At one time people conveniently "went mad" and were never heard from again. Like a character in a romantic novel. But now you are too hip to yourself on a psychological level. You all are too intimate with too many of the symptoms of insanity to be caught completely off your guard.” PeopleWayCharacterFactsLevelsNovelImpossibleGenerationsHeardParticularMadCaughtPsychologicalHipsInsanityIntimateOne TimeSymptomsSanctuary Author:Ken Kesey
“Writing a novel that works is an extremely difficult thing to do. It requires a level of skill and dedication that always surprises me.” WritingDifficultLevelsNovelSkillsSurpriseThings To DoDedicationDifficult ThingsSurprise Me Author:Bret Easton Ellis
“The idea of the writer who writes nineteen novels, with various ups and downs and levels of experimentation, isn't around so much now. There's a focus, I think, on fewer books, with more pressure on each book to succeed. With that there comes, I think, a certain pressure towards shapeliness in fiction. Towards neatness. And I think writers feel that, and it can effect how they write.” ThinkingFeelsWritingBookIdeasCertainLevelsFictionNovelFocusEffectsSucceedPressureVariousFewerUps & DownsExperimentationNineteenNeatness Author:Chad Harbach
“I saved letters from my boss. There are things in there that are directly transcribed. I was so glad I did that. Sometimes when I was writing the book I wondered if some little writer hobbit part of my brain was back there puppeteering that action. But it really never, on any conscious level, occurred to me that I would write about it. I will say, I thought probably some day there would be an ancillary character in some novel - not in the one I was currently writing - that would be a dominatrix or something.” IfsWritingLittlesBookSometimesCharacterWould BeActionLevelsBrainNovelConsciousLettersSavedGladBoss Author:Melissa Febos
“The Australian Gerald Murnane, a genius on the level of Beckett, is known in Australia and Sweden but almost nowhere else. And I loved Reality Hunger, David Shields' recent novel take on the art of the novel.” ArtRealityLevelsKnownNovelGeniusHungerAustraliaShieldsAustralianSwedenBeckett Author:Teju Cole