“I've been an avid consumer of young adult literature since I was one, and I think some people leave that stuff behind when they become old adults, but I never did. I was always interested in the fantasy world created in those novels.” PeopleThinkingWorldYoungLiteratureStuffBehindsFantasyNovelAdultsYoung AdultConsumersAvidFantasy Worlds Author:Diablo Cody
“The problems you have as a novelist tend to have to do with making a living and trying to find ways to supplement the income you get from writing novels. For a lot of writers, that involves teaching. In my case, so far, I've been able to get by working in Hollywood with this TV stuff I've been doing. And it's very important, because my wife is a writer, too, and we don't have health insurance through any employer.” WayWritingTryingImportantProblemAbleStuffCasesNovelWifeTeachingTvsHollywoodMy WifeIncomeNovelistsEmployersSupplementsMaking A Living Author:Michael Chabon
“Books are great for if you want to work on the craft of writing for yourself, or, you know, to write novels or indie films, stuff like that.” IfsKnowsWantWritingBookFilmStuffNovelCraftsIndie FilmsWriting For Yourself Author:Thomas Lennon
“The secret of keeping young is to read children's books. You read the books they write for little children and you'll keep young. You read novels, philosophy, stuff like that and it makes you feel old.” FeelsWritingChildrenLittlesBookPhilosophyYoungStuffSecretNovelChildren's Books Author:John Cheever
“What critics might call eclectic, and Eastern folks quirky, we Southerners call cussedness-and it's the cornerstone of the American genius. As in: 'There's a right way, a wrong way, and my way.' You want to see how that looks on the page, pick up any of Craig McDonald's novels. He's built him a nice little shack out there way off all the reg'lar roads, and he's brewing some fine, heady stuff. Leave your money under the rock and come back in an hour.” WayWantLooksLittlesMightStuffHoursNovelNiceRocksFineGeniusPagesPicksBuiltCriticsFolksMy WayRight WayEasternWrong WayMcdonaldsQuirkyCornerstonesEclecticSouthernerBrewingShack Author:James Sallis
“Despite the war, and bombings, and all the big things that happen to us, the stuff of our lives is small and always will be. During a war it is different, but even then, it is perfectly possible to write novels during a major war, which are about those thing which endure. It is what makes us human and the thing which is going to keep going.” WritingHumansDifferentWarBigsHappensLife IsStuffNovelOur LivesMajorsEndureDespiteKeep GoingBig ThingsBombing Author:Robert Dessaix
“There's no really other way to learn writing than by writing. So accelerate that as much as you can. The more you write, the better you'll get. What also helps, though, is walking away from broken stuff. Not everything's going to work. Killing two years of your life trying to resuscitate a dying novel, I don't know. Why not just write a different one? You'll have more ideas. You can't help having ideas.” KnowsWayWritingTryingYearsTwoIdeasDifferentHelpingStuffNovelDyingBrokenWalkingKillingTwo YearsWhy NotGoing To WorkAccelerateWalking Away Author:Stephen Graham Jones
“I find that a lot of my best character stuff and ideas come unwittingly from novels. In scripts, it's a lot about the outward signs of whatever's happening - you have the end result. Whereas in a novel you get a buildup of the whys and wherefores, and you're let into the backstory.” IdeasEndsCharacterStuffResultsNovelHappeningsScriptsEnd ResultsBest Character Author:Alison Pill
“What I like to write about is stuff I know. I don't think I could write a novel. I don't think I have it in me to come up with those kinds of characters.” ThinkingKnowsWritingKindCharacterStuffNovelCome Up Author:Carol Burnett
“But television affords you, what you just described, to - over the course of 18 hours, now that we're doing a third season - tell the story of this man. You're not under any obligation, really, to do massive expositional stuff at the beginning. You're at liberty to say, "Come with us on this journey," and, gradually, you become aware of what his motivations are, what drives him, what his weaknesses are, what his strengths are. That's what I think's sucking people into these worlds, because it is kind of like a novel, you just go really, really deep.” PeopleThinkingMenWorldKindStoriesMotivationCoursesStuffHoursLibertyNovelJourneyTelevisionWeaknessThirdsSeasonsObligationMassiveReally Deep Author:Cillian Murphy
“You have to understand, writing a novel gets very weird and invisible-friend-from-childhood-ish. Then you kill that thing, which was never really alive except in your imagination, and you're supposed to go buy groceries and talk to people at parties and stuff.” PeopleWritingStuffImaginationPartyNovelAliveChildhoodInvisibleGroceries Author:David Foster Wallace
“The old images seem like a caricature now: the shadowy world of secret rituals, the aging dons behind high-walled estates, the passion for vengeance and power over other men. For years, the Mafia was the stuff of novels and movies and whispers on Mulberry Street.” MenWorldYearsSeemsPassionStuffSecretBehindsNovelStreetsAgingRitualEstatesVengeanceMafiaCaricaturesPower Over OthersMulberry Author:Robert D. McFadden
“I use things, I steal things from my life when I want to, when I need to, or when it seems appropriate. But most of the stuff in my novels is entirely invented, ninety-five percent. And even when I do borrow something, it becomes fictionalized.” WantNeedsUseSeemsStuffNovelFivePercentStealingAppropriateNinety Author:Paul Auster
“The hardest thing in a novel is time. You've got [a line like] "two weeks later, he woke up with a headache," and you've got to add up that entire two weeks and what the date is and whether it works. That kind of stuff drives me crazy and if I don't have it exactly right, I can't move forward because I don't feel confident.” IfsFeelsKindI CanTwoMovingStuffLinesNovelWeekCrazyAddHardestMoving ForwardHardest ThingTwo WeeksHeadacheDrive Me Crazy Author:T.C. Boyle
“I have a lot of stuff that I never published because I always had a sense that novels were not finally going to be the way I made my living, because the form was dying commercially.” WayMadeFormStuffNovelDying Author:William Monahan
“In '94, I started writing a novel about an enormous terrorist act that destroyed the United States. The novel takes place twenty years after this destruction, with all the stuff that we're dealing with now - a dirty war, the disappeared, the concept of terrorism. Anyway, 9/11 happened some years into the process, and I was like, OK, I don't have a novel.” WritingYearsWarStatesStuffProcessUnitedUnited StatesNovelHappenedConceptsDestructionTwentiesTerrorismTerroristEnormousDestroyedDirty Author:Junot Diaz
“In my head, the 5 issues of A Spoon Too Short comprise one novel: a 100 page graphic novel sequel to Douglas' two Dirk books, taking some of the ideas he was working on before he died, and a whole bunch of new stuff from me and a little from Max Landis (who is the Executive Producer on the book as well as writing the forthcoming TV series).” WritingWellsLittlesTwoBookIdeasWholeStuffNovelIssuesTvsPagesDiedSeriesBunchProducersExecutivesToo ShortGraphicMaxSpoonsSequelsTv SeriesGraphic NovelsNew StuffForthcomingLandi Author:Arvind Ethan David
“I really like the "two is better than three" line. People ask me is this drama or comedy? I just think the more colors you have to a film the better. The more genres, the more people will like it. I like relating to the whole general speaking public. The script itself is 99 pages but the novel it is based on is 600. I had to leave a lot of stuff out of the script. I had a limitation of what I could present on the big screen.” PeopleThinkingTwoWholeBigsFilmThreeAsksStuffLinesNovelComedyColorDramaPagesScriptsScreensLimitationGenreAsk MeBig Screen Author:Tommy Wiseau
“I like all sorts of things, not necessarily just Victorian. Even though I tend to read a lot of Victorian novels, I like a lot of contemporary stuff.” StuffNovelContemporaryVictorian Author:Colin Meloy