Best novel & numbers Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings

“If you have no conflict, you have no story. That's number one. That's a rule of novels.”

“Modern novels have become part of the do-it-yourself business, and they come in a very small number of standard kits. (...) In this wilderness cries the voice of Patrick White, Australian extraordinary, who has quite other, more austere and indeed prophetic ambitions. (...) (H)is failures are certainly the equivalent, and perhaps the measure, of other men's success.”

Men Voice White Numbers Novel Modern Cry Ambition Standards Extraordinary Wilderness Australian Prophetic Do It Yourself Small Numbers Modern Novel

Author:David Pryce-Jones

“I think What Dreams May Come is the most important (read effective) book I've written. It has caused a number of readers to lose their fear of death the finest tribute any writer could receive. ... Somewhere In Time is my favorite novel.”

Thinking May Important Book Dream Loses Numbers Novel Written Reader My Favorite Finest Fear Of Death Tribute Somewhere In Time

Author:Richard Matheson

“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.”

“I suppose as long as novels last, and authors aim at interesting their public, there must always be in the story a virtuous and gallant hero; a wicked monster, his opposite; and a pretty girl, who finds a champion. Bravery and virtue conquer beauty; and vice, after seeming to triumph through a certain number of pages, is sure to be discomfited in the last volume, when justice overtakes him, and honest folks come by their own.”

Source: The four Georges. The English humorists. Roundabout papers

“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.”

Thinking Enough Numbers Effort Novel Five Figures Waste Thrown Abandoned Waste Of Effort

Author:Mark Haddon

“Writing, and especially writing a novel, where you get to sit in a room by yourself with either a pen and a paper or a computer for a couple of years, is a very solitary occupation. You can read sales figures - a hundred thousand books sold, half a million books sold - but they are just numbers.”

Writing Years Book Rooms Numbers Half Millions Novel Figures Couple Thousand Paper Computer Hundred Pens Occupation Solitary

Author:Neil Gaiman

“There's no lack of writers writing novels in America, about America. Therefore, it seems to me it would be wasteful for me to add to that huge number of people writing here when there are so few people writing about somewhere else.”

People Writing Seems Would Be America Numbers Novel Huge Add Somewhere Else Huge Numbers

Author:Chinua Achebe

“I don't really ask of myself a given word or page count or number of hours. To work every day, that's my only fetish. And there is a physical quality to it when a novel is thriving.”

Asks Given Hours Numbers Quality Novel Pages Fetish

Author:Jonathan Lethem

“I never think about issues when I'm working on a novel. Issues are things that happen to people in sufficient numbers to elicit widespread attention; in other words, they're just life happening. That's what I think about: life, and telling a story.”

People Thinking Stories Happens Numbers Attention Novel Issues Happenings Sufficient Life Happens

Author:Anna Quindlen

“Baseball is more like a novel than a war. It is like an ongoing, hundred-year work of art, peopled with thousands of characters, full of improbable events, anecdotes, folklore and numbers.”

Years Art War Character Numbers Novel Events Hundred Baseball Works Of Art Ongoing Improbable Folklore Anecdotes

Book:The answer is baseball: a book of questions that illuminate the great game

Source: The answer is baseball: a book of questions that illuminate the great game

“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.”

“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.”

Ifs Should Firsts Literature Language Numbers Novel Audience What If Critique American Literature

Author:Kiese Laymon

“In terms of fiction, there are a number of writers who are thinking about the future of the environment whose work complements mine. Kim Stanley Robinson's novel 2312 is a great example, as is Tobias Buckell's novel Arctic Rising.”

Thinking Term Numbers Fiction Novel Environment Example Mines Rising Kim Arctic Complement Stanley Tobias Thinking About The Future

Author:Annalee Newitz

“You know how some people will say to writers, "Why don't you just write a romance novel that sells a bunch of copies and then you'll have the money to do the kind of writing you want to do"? I always say that I don't have the skills or knowledge to do that. It would be just as hard for me to do that kind of writing as it would be to learn how to do any number of productive careers that I can't manage to make myself do.”

People Knows Want Writing Kind I Can Hard Would Be Romance Numbers Careers Novel Know How Skills Sells Bunch Manage Productive Copies Romance Novel

Author:Lucy Corin

“I'm always looking for context in which people tell stories. In "Fight Club" it's these support groups for dying people, and then in "Choke" it's 12-step recovery groups. In one novel it's artists' colonies, in another novel it's a diary form that submariners' wives typically keep so that when their husband comes back from serving on a submarine they have an accounting of their spouse's time. So I'm always looking for, number one, a non-fiction context - because you can tell a more outrageous story if you use a non-fiction form.”

“Writing is my number one passion. I've written two novels. I've written a screenplay. I also write short stories and poetry.”

Writing Two Stories Passion Numbers Novel Written Short Story Screenplays

Author:Evangeline Lilly

“I've worked out a Ninja Replacement Score for novels. It's basically the number of characters that need to be replaced by ninjas to make the book good.”

Needs Book Character Numbers Novel Score Replaced Replacements Ninja

Author:Janni Lee Simner

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