“Working on a novel is very solitary and I get to be the boss. I'm the dictator, so I win every battle. So, in that sense, novels are easier because you don't have to answer to anyone. And then, you go into something like film and there are more cooks in the kitchen, so to speak.” FilmWinningSpeakAnswersNovelEasierBattleCooksKitchenBossSolitaryDictatorCooks In The Kitchen Author:Nicholas Sparks
“Are there any mythical beasts which aren't simple pastiches of nature? Centaurs, minotaurs, unicorns, griffons, chimeras, sphinxes, manticores, and the like don't speak well for the human imagination. None is as novel as a kangaroo or starfish.” HumansWellsSpeakImaginationSimpleNovelMythologyBeastUnicornHuman ImaginationChimeraSphinxKangaroosMinotaurCentaursStarfishPasticheMythical Beasts Author:William Poundstone
“I'm always interested in the way people speak and move in their environment, in a very particular environment. I'm never interested in writing a kind of neutral, universal novel that could be set anywhere. To me, the any novel is a local thing always.” PeopleWayWritingKindMovingSpeakNovelEnvironmentParticularUniversalLocals Author:Zadie Smith
“I think that it's important to try to keep reality. I think that Gabriel Garcia Marquez speaks a lot about reality in his magical realism. So I don't think we have to be hyper-realistic. But we have to understand the pressures that undergird the lives of the characters within that novel.” ThinkingTryingImportantCharacterRealitySpeakNovelPressureRealisticRealismMagical RealismHyperGabrielMarquezGarcia Marquez Author:Walter Mosley
“The majority of American writers today have chosen passive non-resistance to things as they are, producing sloughs of poetry about their personal angst and anomie, cascades of short stories and rivers of novels obsessed with the nuances of domestic relationships - suburban hanky-panky - chic boutique shopping mall literary soap opera. When they do speak out on matters of controversy they attack not the evils of our time but fellow writers who may insist on complaining.” MayMatterStoriesTodayEvilSpeakNovelRiversFellowsMajorityComplainingChosenResistanceObsessedOur TimeShort StoryShoppingOperaPassiveControversySoapAngstMallsNuanceSpeaks OutSoap OperasChicAmerican WriterCascadeSloughAnomie Book:One Life at a Time, Please Source: One Life at a Time, Please
“What works in a story is very different than what works in cinema. For example, dialogue in books: If you translate it too faithfully, it sounds a little stilted, because we often don't speak the way we speak in novels. Oral language is much punchier, shorter sentences.” IfsWayLittlesBookDifferentStoriesSpeakLanguageSoundNovelExampleSentencesDialogueCinemaTranslate Author:Yann Martel
“In undergraduate classes, I often see writers who are still simply imitating. I mean, we all imitate - that's how we learn to speak or write in the first place - but they're writing a Dean Koontz novel or something.” WritingFirstsMeanStillsSpeakClassNovelDeanImitatingUndergraduate Author:Leni Zumas
“Movies, novels, TV shows - these are the water fountains of today. We thirst for stories which speak to us by representing us, but we go to the water fountains in the centre of town looking for that, and we're turned away, sent to the ghetto.” StoriesShowsTodaySpeakWaterNovelTvsTownsThirstTv ShowsCentreFountainGhettoRepresentingWater Fountain Author:Hal Duncan
“A novel is a way to rethink and rewrite and re-envision the past, and also a way to speak to people who haven't been born yet about what we think about right now.” PeopleThinkingWayPastSpeakBornNovelHavensRight Now Author:Emily Barton