“I have learned as much about writing about my people by listening to blues and jazz and spirituals as I have from reading novels. The understatements in the tenor saxophone of Lester Young, the crystal, haunting, forever searching sounds of John Coltrane, and the softness and violence of Count Basie's big band - all have fired my imagination as much as anything in literature.” PeopleWritingBigsYoungReadingLiteratureSoundImaginationNovelForeverViolenceListeningBandJazzI Have LearnedMy ImaginationHauntingCrystalsSoftnessSaxophoneTenorsUnderstatementColtraneReading NovelsLester Young Author:Ernest Gaines
“Horse racing is really much more intimidating than anything having to do with literature. When I had horses at the racetrack, I would wake up in terror in a way that I would never wake up while working on a novel.” WayLiteratureNovelHorseWake UpTerrorRacingIntimidatingHorse Racing Author:Jane Smiley
“It was just such a complete shock to turn on the news one day and see someone that you know, someone you have passed in the halls of your high school. It got me thinking, 'Well, what are some novels that are about female sexual psychopaths? I really didn't have many references for that, and I felt like that was a void in transgressive literature that I wanted to fill.'” ThinkingKnowsWellsWantedSchoolTurnsLiteratureFeltNovelOne DayNewsHigh SchoolFemaleShockHallsVoidTurn-onPsychopath Author:Alissa Nutting
“[Mark] Twain is pointing at you. You, the reader of the book one hundred and thirty years ago and today. That is what has made it a great American novel and the most widely read book in American Literature around the world today.” WorldYearsMadeBookTodayLiteratureNovelReaderHundredYears AgoMarkMade ItAround The WorldThirtyPointingWorld TodayThirty YearsGreat AmericanAmerican Literature Author:Hal Holbrook
“First of all, the novel should be a critique of the novels that have come before it in a language that broadens the audience of American literature. Second, it's really got to be invested in a number of what-if questions.” IfsShouldFirstsLiteratureLanguageNumbersNovelAudienceWhat IfCritiqueAmerican Literature Author:Kiese Laymon
“If my novel gets any attention in Bulgaria, it will be as a scandal: a book about a teacher at a famous school and his relationship with a prostitute. I doubt very much it will be evaluated on its merits as literature. If Bulgarian were the book's only language, that would be painful and limiting to me as a writer. Since my book also exists in English - where it isn't scandalous at all - I feel comfortable with the possibility of scandal.” IfsFeelsBookWould BeSchoolLiteratureLanguageAttentionNovelDoubtTeacherPossibilityComfortablePainfulMeritScandalScandalousBulgariaBulgarians Author:Garth Greenwell
“You say fate is almost indispensable to literature - I think it's completely indispensable, at least in a novel, because a novel always has a plot. Even if nothing happens, even if someone just spends a day walking around Dublin, or whatever, there's still something going on.” IfsThinkingStillsHappensLiteratureNovelFateWalkingThings HappenPlotIndispensableDublin Author:Daniel Kehlmann
“Arabs don't do crime fiction. I read crime fiction and I read Arabic literature, and I wish this was a novel I could have read in Arabic.” LiteratureWishFictionNovelCrimeCrime Fiction Author:Elliott Colla
“I haven't the stature to critique one of our literature's great novels, Tobias; and I'm not one of those who believe The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn needs critiquing for literary or social reasons.” NeedsBelieveReasonLiteratureSocialNovelHavensAdventureCritiqueStatureTobiasGreat NovelsHuckleberry Author:Norman Lock
“I was in school for literature, and read so many 19th century and early 20th century novels that it was hard to break out of that and read an average Jeanette Winterson book or something.” BookHardSchoolLiteratureBreakNovelCenturyAverage20th Century19th CenturyBreak Out Author:Colin Meloy
“If ideas are what feed serious literature and arresting language, who today is writing a novel of ideas (which can often mean comedy)? I think of Joshua Cohen. Who else?” IfsThinkingWritingMeanIdeasTodayLiteratureLanguageNovelComedySeriousArresting Author:Cynthia Ozick
“Novels are routinely denigrated when characters are not found to be likable. Is Raskolnikov likable? Is King Lear? The plethora of such naive readers testifies to a failure of imagination - the capacity to see into unfamiliar lives, motives, feelings - and this failure must, at least in part, be the failure of the teaching of literature in the schools.” CharacterFeelingsSchoolFoundLiteratureImaginationNovelTeachingReaderKingsCapacityMotiveNaiveUnfamiliarLearRaskolnikov Author:Cynthia Ozick
“The gift of literature is that, in some lucky cases, reading a novel or a story makes the reader more curious, more open-minded.” StoriesReadingLiteratureCasesNovelReaderLuckyCuriousOpen Minded Author:Amos Oz