“Much like the French (or like ourselves, their apes),Who with strange habit do disguise their shapes;Who loving novels, full of affectation,Receive the manners of each other nation.” NationsNovelStrangeHabitShapesMannersDisguiseApes Book:The Complete Works of Joshuah Sylvester: For the First Time Collected and Edited Source: The Complete Works of Joshuah Sylvester: For the First Time Collected and Edited
“The novel...creates a bemusing effect. The short story, on the other hand wakes the reader up. Not only that, it answers the primitive craving for art, the wit, paradox and beauty of shape, the longing to see a dramatic pattern and significance in our experience.” ArtStoriesHandsAnswersNovelEffectsReaderShapesLongingPatternsWitDramaticSignificanceParadoxShort StoryPrimitiveCraving Author:V. S. Pritchett
“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
“You can get rid of the column. It's a little like staying at a hotel; you get used to the shape of the room, and then you're gone. With a novel you move into town and stay for a long time. That's both comforting and terrifying.” LittlesLongMovingUsedRoomsNovelGoneShapesLong TimeTownsHotelStayingComfortingColumns Author:Anna Quindlen
“For me a paragraph in a novel is a bit like a line in a poem. It has its own shape, its own music, its own integrity.” BitsLinesNovelIntegrityShapesParagraph Author:Paul Auster
“I have to know the killer, the victim and the motive when I begin. Then I start to create the characters and see how the novel takes shape based on what these people are like.” PeopleKnowsCharacterNovelShapesVictimMotiveKillers Author:Elizabeth George
“A novel determines its own size and shape and I've never tried to stretch an idea beyond the frame and structure it seemed to require.” IdeasNovelShapesStructureSizeDetermine Author:Don DeLillo