“Short fiction is the medium I love the most, because it requires that I bring everything I've learned about poetry - the concision, the ability to say something as vividly as possible - but also the ability to create a narrative that, though lacking a novel's length, satisfies the reader.” AbilityFictionNovelReaderMediumsNarrativeI've LearnedLengthLacking Author:Ron Rash
“I have to say that movies have as much impact on me as music. And that I learned as much about narrative from movies as I did from reading novels, how to arrange stories, how to juxtapose things.” StoriesReadingNovelImpactNarrativeReading Novels Author:Dana Spiotta
“A great novel is concerned primarily with the interior lives of its characters, as they respond to the inconvenient narratives that fate imposes on them. Movie adaptations of these monumental fictions often fail because they become mere exercises in interior decoration.” CharacterFictionNovelFateFailingExerciseConcernedMereNarrativeInteriorsAdaptationDecorationInconvenientGreat Novels Author:Richard Schickel
“I never even considered writing a career option. I just liked the play of words. I was certainly interested in story, but the stories I was telling then were in narrative verse and prose poems, short and succinct, except for one novel-length poem written in narrative couplets.” WritingPlayStoriesCareersNovelWrittenNarrativeProseLengthVersesCouplets Author:Charles de Lint
“The Da Vinci Code may well be the only novel ever written that begins with the word 'renowned'... I think what enabled the first word to tip me off that I was about to spend a number of hours in the company of one of the worst prose stylists in the history of literature was this. Putting curriculum vitae details into complex modifiers on proper names or definite descriptions is what you do in journalistic stories about deaths; you just don't do it in describing an event in a narrative... Why did I keep reading? Because London Heathrow is a long way from San Francisco International.” ThinkingWayFirstsWellsMayLongBookStoriesReadingLiteratureNamesLanguageHoursNumbersCompanyNovelWrittenWorstEventsComplexesInternationalDetailsLondonNarrativeCodeProseDescriptionDefiniteLong WaySan FranciscoDescribingCurriculumStylistJournalisticRenownedDa Vinci Code Author:Geoffrey K. Pullum
“At DePauw, I was teaching writing and fiction. The things I wanted to teach, more than anything else, were form and theory of the novel, of narrative. I liked those classes.” WritingWantedFormFictionClassTeachNovelTeachingTheoryNarrativeTeaching Writing Author:Nic Pizzolatto
“For me, the main inspiration to write a story or novel is the voice of its central character, or the narrative voice of the story itself.” WritingCharacterStoriesInspirationVoiceNovelNarrativeInspiration To WriteNarrative Voice Author:Scott Bradfield
“My view of an excellent novel was probably set in the golden age of fiction in the 19th century: narrative, character and voice are of equal importance.” CharacterAgeVoiceViewsFictionNovelCenturyEqualImportanceGoldenNarrativeExcellent19th CenturyGolden Age Author:Joanna Trollope
“Season of Migration to the North, by Tayeb Salih, is an eloquent and restrained portrait of one man's exile. It is a rare narrative in that it charts a life divided between England and Sudan. Without a doubt it is one of the finest Arabic novels of the 20th century, and Denys Johnson-Davies' translationdoes the original justice.” MenJusticeNovelDoubtCenturySeasonsEnglandOriginalsNarrativeOne ManDividedFinestPortraits20th CenturyExileJohnsonEloquentMigrationSudan Author:Hisham Matar
“Jeremy Popkin's collection of first-person narratives of the Haitian Revolution is an extremely valuable work, accessible, sound and intelligent. I only wish such a book had been available fifteen years ago when I was in the early stages of researching my series of novels. Popkin has been deft and tactful in stitching together these excerpts, and as a result, he manages to tell a complete version of the Revolution almost entirely in the words of the people who experienced it-this book engaged me deeply.” PeopleYearsFirstsPersonsHas BeensBookTogetherWishSoundResultsNovelStageRevolutionYears AgoIntelligentSeriesAvailableValuableVersionsManageNarrativeEngagedCollectionsFifteenFirst PersonFifteen YearsHaitianHaitian Revolution Author:Madison Smartt Bell
“In everything I've written, the crime has always just been an occasion to write about other things. I don't have a picture of myself as writing crime novels. I like fairly strong narratives, but it's a way of getting a plot moving.” WayWritingMovingStrongNovelWrittenCrimeOccasionsNarrativePlotCrime NovelsPictures Of Myself Author:Peter Temple
“I'm skeptical that the novel will be "reinvented." If you start thinking about a medical textbook or something, then, yes, I think that's ripe for reinvention. You can imagine animations of a beating heart. But I think the novel will thrive in its current form. That doesn't mean that there won't be new narrative inventions as well. But I don't think they'll displace the novel.” IfsThinkingWellsHeartMeanFormNovelImagineCurrentsMedicalInventionNarrativeThriveAnimationSkepticalRipeTextbooksReinvention Author:Jeff Bezos
“The short story is at an advantage over the novel, and can claim its nearer kinship to poetry, because it must be more concentrated, can be more visionary, and is not weighed down (as the novel is bound to be) by facts, explanation, or analysis. I do not mean to say that the short story is by any means exempt from the laws of narrative: it must observe them, but on its own terms.” MeanFactsStoriesLawTermFictionNovelAdvantageClaimsBoundsNarrativeAnalysisExplanationPoetry IsShort StoryVisionariesKinship Book:Stories Source: Stories
“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
“In the books by Ruy-Sanchez we find again the erotic conviction that allows us to read with all the skin. The erotic, in his narratives is not a subject or a phrase, it is the clay of what they are made. In his novels every experience, trivial or extraordinary, breaths through the erotic.” MadeBookNovelSubjectsSkinsBreathsExtraordinaryConvictionNarrativePhrasesClayErotic Author:Alberto Manguel
“I don't think the relationship between novels and realities are one to one. Of course novels play different roles. It's essentially just a long narrative form. What you use that long narrative form for can be very different.” ThinkingLongDifferentPlayUseRealityFormCoursesRolesNovelNarrative Author:Margaret Atwood
“It's rather useless to write a gripping narrative with nothing in it but climate change because novels are always about people even if they purport to be about rabbits or robots.” PeopleIfsWritingNovelClimateClimate ChangeUselessNarrativeRobotsRabbitsGripping Author:Margaret Atwood
“We don't really know how technology will affect narrative. That's the question. See, people used to say that the novel is going to die, but they would never say that movies will die with it, when in fact all forms depend on the narrative. I think if one of them fails, the others are going to fail as well. Maybe this will happen to both forms, and maybe movies will take a totally different direction with fiction.” PeopleIfsThinkingKnowsWellsDifferentFactsHappensFormUsedDiesFictionTechnologyNovelKnow HowFailingDependsNarrativeDifferent Directions Author:Don DeLillo
“Girlchild . . . unfolds a compelling, layered narrative told by a protagonist with a voice so fresh, original, and funny you'll be in awe. This novel rocks . . . In Girlchild Tupelo Hassman has created a character you'll never forget. Rory Dawn Hendrix of the Calle has as precocious and endearing a voice as Holden Caulfield of Central Park. When you finish this novel, your sorrow at turning the last page will be eased by your excitement at what this sassy, talented author will do next.” CharacterLastsNextVoiceForgetNovelRocksSorrowPagesOriginalsNarrativeDawnExcitementParksAweNever ForgetCompellingSassyProtagonistsHendrixEndearingHoldenCentral ParkHolden CaulfieldPrecocious Author:Mameve Medwed
“I have more self-doubt than any writer I've ever known.... The positive aspect of self-doubt - if you can channel it into useful activity instead of being paralyzed by it - is that by the time you reach the end of a novel, you know precisely why you made every decision in the narrative, the multiple purposes of every metaphor and image.” IfsKnowsMadeEndsSelfPurposeDecisionKnownNovelDoubtActivityAspectMetaphorNarrativeMultipleParalyzedSelf-doubt Author:Dean Koontz
“I wanted my first novel to be a veritable infarct of narrative cloggers-the trick being to feel your way through each clog by blowing it up until its obstructiveness finally reveals not blank mass but unlooked-for seepage points of passage.” WayFeelsFirstsWantedNovelMassTricksNarrativePassagesBlankBlowing It Book:U and I: A True Story Source: U and I: A True Story
“In the years since The Life and Extraordinary Adventures of Private Ivan Chonkin, Voinovich has sharpened his satire, and Monumental Propaganda is a novel that slashes and rips -- but not on every page. He expands his narrative to accommodate shrewd philosophy and inventive portraiture, a very amusing disquisition on Soviet latrines and a number of outlandish plot developments. In his translation, Andrew Bromfield deftly shifts his tone and tools as required, remaining true to Voinovich's Vonnegut-like playfulness and appreciation of the absurd.” YearsPhilosophyNumbersNovelAdventureDevelopmentPagesToolsExtraordinaryAppreciationAbsurdNarrativePropagandaTonePlotSatireSovietTranslationsRipAmusingAccommodateAndrewPlayfulnessPortraitureOutlandish Author:Ken Kalfus
“Writing a novel is an incredibly free experience. One puts one's self in a narrative mode. You can go off in any direction - the past, the future, or go laterally, or include one's own beliefs. It's total freedom.” WritingSelfPastBeliefNovelNarrative Author:David Mamet
“Usually at the end of each story we're thrown clear out of the story's world and then we're given a new world to enter. What's unique about a linked collection is that it can deliver both sets of narrative pleasures - the novel's long immersion into character-world and the story anthology's energetic (and mortal) brevity - the linked collection is unique in its ability to be both abrupt and longitudinal simultaneously.” WorldLongEndsCharacterStoriesGivenAbilityPleasureNovelClearUniqueMortalsNarrativeCollectionsThrownNew WorldLinkedEnergeticBrevityAnthologyImmersion Author:Junot Diaz
“With my students, I don't offer any simple tips like that, maybe because my own process is pretty messy, but when we workshop we talk a lot about the deeper subject, which is what the story or novel is about. I think defining a narrative's themes can lay bare a narrative's tensions.” ThinkingStoriesProcessMy OwnSimpleNovelSubjectsStudentsOffersLaysDeeperNarrativeTensionThemeDefiningMessyWorkshops Author:Edan Lepucki
“We can't write a serious novel in the 21st century without acknowledging the inescapable self-awareness we're stuck with. The idea we're surrounded by falsehoods and lies. It's hard for the thinking person to believe in narratives. And yet we want some place to invest our belief.” ThinkingWantWritingBelievePersonsIdeasSelfHardLyingBeliefNovelCenturyAwarenessSeriousSelf AwarenessStuckNarrativeFalsehood21st CenturyThinking Person Author:Michael Helm
“Radio, or at least the kind of radio we're proposing to do, can cut through that. It can reach people who would otherwise never hear your work, and of course I find that very notion inspiring. Radio stories are powerful because the human voice is powerful. It has been and will continue to be the most basic element of storytelling. As a novelist (and I should note that working my novel is the first thing I do in the morning and the very last thing I do before I sleep), shifting into this new medium is entirely logical. It's still narrative, only with different tools.” PeopleShouldFirstsHumansKindHas BeensStillsDifferentStoriesLastsCoursesVoiceSleepPowerfulMorningNovelCuttingElementsToolsNotesNotionRadioStorytellingMediumsNarrativeNovelistsLogicalShiftingHuman Voice Author:Daniel Alarcon
“I was born in the era of the novel. I've written many, as well as collections of poetry, and essays for mouthing off. I've written to inches, word-counts, page-counts, even the sonnet and the screenplay (which I call a plot poem). I write narrative. That's it. I just want to tell it.” WantWritingWellsBornNovelWrittenPagesErasNarrativeCollectionsPlotInchesEssaysSonnetScreenplays Author:Julianna Baggott
“It's actually not very hard to re-set between the adult novels and the ones for younger readers. The narrative voices are very similar, the smartass attitude, the environmental battles. Kids love books that are irreverent and challenge authority, when authority is arbitrary, greedy or foolish. They also love it when you make fun of grownups, and I've spent my whole life as a writer doing that.” BookHardWholeKidsFunVoiceChallengesAttitudeNovelReaderBattleAuthorityAdultsEnvironmentalWhole LifeFoolishNarrativeGreedyArbitraryGrownupsKids LoveIrreverentSmartassNarrative Voice Author:Carl Hiaasen
“For each of my novels, I've had something of a eureka moment of deciding what world I want to set it in - Wall Street, the pop-music industry, Harvard - and what the very vague contours of the narrative might be (which typically get changed a lot through the writing process).” WorldWantWritingMomentsMightProcessNovelStreetsChangedWallIndustryPopsNarrativeVagueWriting ProcessHarvardPop MusicMusic Industry Author:Teddy Wayne
“It so happens that the major relationships in the novel [The Kite Runner] are between men, dictated not by any sort of prejudice or discomfort with female characters, but rather by the demands of the narrative.” MenCharacterHappensNovelDemandMajorsFemalePrejudiceNarrativeRunnersDiscomfortFemale CharactersKites Author:Khaled Hosseini
“Voltaire's novel [Candid] offers us parallel universes, the possibility of entering into alternative worlds existing side by side, and this is something quite modern. Nested narratives and parallel universes are popular at the moment in many different art forms.” WorldArtDifferentMomentsFormUniverseSidesNovelModernPossibilityOffersAlternativesNarrativeEnteringParallelsCandidParallel Universe Author:Mark Ravenhill
“Even within single sentences, there are sudden changes of register. And when the travellers go to Venice, they see a play by Voltaire! This is a novel [Candid] which has narratives within narratives, such as when Cunégonde recounts her story.” PlayStoriesNovelSentencesNarrativeTravellerVeniceRegisterCandidSingle SentenceSudden Change Author:Mark Ravenhill
“Because I think of novels as collaborative enterprises between the writer and the reader, all of my novels so far have ending with endings that maybe point in more than one direction, and that seems important to me because it seems important to me that after you've invested twenty or thirty hours of your imaginative life into this narrative that you have some stake in how it ends.” ThinkingImportantEndsSeemsHoursNovelReaderTwentiesNarrativeThirtyEnterpriseStakesImaginativeOne Direction Author:Emily Barton