“When I put together a graphic novel, I don't think about literary prose. I think about storytelling.” ThinkingWritingTogetherNovelStorytellingProseGraphicGraphic Novels Author:Ted Rall
“I think graphic novels are closer to prose than film, which is a really different form.” ThinkingDifferentFilmFormNovelProseGraphicGraphic Novels Author:Denise Mina
“Because, if one is writing novels today, concentrating on the beauty of the prose is right up there with concentrating on your semi-colons, for wasted effort.” IfsWritingTodayEffortNovelProseConcentratingEfforts Wasted Author:Neil Gaiman
“. . . you [film critics] always overstress the value of images. You judge films in the first place by their visual impact instead of looking for content. This is a great disservice to the cinema. It is like judging a novel only by the quality of its prose. I was guilty of the same sin when I first started writing for the cinema. . . . Now I feel that only the literary mind can help the movies out of that cul de sac into which they have been driven by mere technicians and artificers.” FeelsWritingMindFirstsHas BeensHelpingFilmValuesSinQualityNovelJudgingImpactMereCriticsDrivenGuiltyCraftsCinemaVisualsProseTechniciansDisserviceFilm Critics Author:Orson Welles
“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
“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
“The Watch is a powerful tale, courageous both in concept and creation: an ancient tale made modern, passed through different narrators in extraordinary shape-shifting prose that makes this not just an important novel, but a remarkable read.” MadeImportantDifferentPowerfulWatchesNovelModernCreationShapesConceptsExtraordinaryAncientTalesProseRemarkableCourageousShiftingNarrators Author:Aminatta Forna
“Once in a rare while, you get to read a story of such breathtaking beauty and intelligence that you remember why you love to read. The Anatomy Lesson is just such a novel. In stunning prose, Nina Siegal animates Rembrandt's first masterpiece, spinning a deeply affecting tale of love, loss and redemption as she reveals the secrets of the human soul. It is a gorgeous literary page turner of immense sympathy and elegance, equal in artistic lan to its inspiration. Brava!” FirstsHumansSoulStoriesInspirationRememberLossSecretNovelLessonsEqualPagesTalesRedemptionArtisticProseImmenseMasterpieceGorgeousEleganceHuman SoulSpinningAnatomyStunningBreathtakingLove To ReadTurnerNinaLove Loss Author:Robin Oliveira
“Gritty and witty, The Chicago Way is done the classic Raymond Chandler Way. Harvey's taut plot, snappy prose, and memorable characters make this debut novel a real winner.” WayRealDoneCharacterNovelWittyWinnerMemorableClassicProsePlotChicagoDebutHarveyMemorable Characters Author:Kathy Reichs
“I do write a lot of prose. It's not disciplined enough yet that it's actually become stories, or short stories. The idea of writing a novel seems impossible.” WritingIdeasEnoughStoriesSeemsNovelImpossibleProseShort Story Author:PJ Harvey
“I started out in life as a poet, I was only writing poetry all through my 20s, it wasn't until I was about 30 that I got serious about writing prose. While I was writing poems, I would often divert myself by reading detective novels, I liked them.” WritingReadingNovelSeriousPoetProseDetectivesWriting PoetryWriting Poems Author:Paul Auster
“Speech recognition is utterly crap for writing fiction. If you try reading a novel aloud you'll soon figure out why - written prose style is utterly unlike the spoken word.” IfsWritingTryingReadingFictionNovelWrittenStyleFiguresSpeechRecognitionProseCrapWriting FictionSpoken Word Author:Charles Stross
“Well, I kind of approach both of them similarly in (that) I always see it as a movie first because that's my background. Cindy Kelley, who has been my writing partner on my novels, she works more on the prose side and the description side of the storytelling because, obviously, there's a lot more of that in a novel than in a screenplay. You only have up to 120 pages in a screenplay.” WritingFirstsWellsKindHas BeensSidesNovelApproachPagesPartnersBackgroundsStorytellingProseDescriptionScreenplaysCindy Author:Michael Landon, Jr.
“I think I was also afraid of the novel. I write line by line, proceeding at snail's pace, rewriting as I go and paring the excess away. This is against all the best advice for writing long form prose, and I have tried over the years to break myself of the habit, but I can't bear to leave anything ungainly on the page and half the fun for me is that tinkering. So the length of a novel was a daunting prospect.” ThinkingWritingYearsLongI CanFormFunLinesHalfBreakNovelAdviceBearsHabitPagesProseLengthPaceExcessProceedingBest AdviceAll The BestRewritingSnailTinkering Author:Debra Dean
“When I was in college I started writing prose, because a very smart professor asked me what I like to read and I said, "Novels," and she said, "You should be writing them then." Memoir never even occurred to me. I think I was afraid of nonfiction and I was afraid of navel-gazing, and of being seen.” ThinkingShouldWritingSaidNovelCollegeSmartMemoirProseProfessorsNonfictionGazingVery SmartNavelNavel Gazing Author:Melissa Febos
“The lessons learned in journalism also apply. Writing for NPR has taught me to cut a piece in half and then in half again - without losing the essence. Apply that to the swollen prose of a bulky novel and you might reveal a beautiful work.” WritingMightBeautifulHalfNovelPiecesCuttingTaughtLessonsLosingEssenceJournalismProseSwollenLesson LearnedNpr Author:Julianna Baggott
“At the emergence of the modern novel with Rabelais and Cervantes, all kinds of things were possible in a long-form prose work. Within a couple of hundred years, most of those possibilities were abandoned in favor of a text that efficiently transmitted sentiments.” YearsKindLongFormNovelModernPossibilityCoupleHundredFavorsAll KindsProseSentimentsAbandonedEmergenceModern Novel Author:Teju Cole
“By the time I was doing "Kill Bill," it was so much filled with prose that, you know, I start seeing why people write a screenplay and make it more like a blueprint, because basically I had written - in "Kill Bill," I had basically written a novel, and basically every day I was adapting my novel to the screen on the fly, you know, on my feet.” PeopleKnowsWritingNovelWrittenSeeingFeetBillsFilledScreensProseScreenplaysBlueprintsAdaptingKill Bill Author:Quentin Tarantino
“When I am writing a novel I try not to read great prose stylists into which I will fall.” WritingTryingFallNovelProseStylist Author:Frederick Busch