“I think you will agree that I am alive in every part of this book; turn back twenty, thirty, one hundred pages - I am back there. That is why I hate the story; characters are not snakes that they must shed their skins on every page - there can only be one action: what a man is. When you have understood this, you will be through with novels.” ThinkingMenWritingBookCharacterStoriesActionHateTurnsNovelAlivePagesUnderstoodHundredSkinsI HateTwentiesAgreeThirtyShedSnakesI Am Alive Author:Kenneth Patchen
“FOAM OF THE DAZE is a novel like no other, a sexy, innocent, smart and sweet cartoon of a world which then begins, little by little, to bleed real blood until, in the end, the blood turns out to be our own. I read it nearly thirty years ago in its previous incarnation as Mood Indigo and I loved it then; it's still one of my favorite books in the whole world” WorldYearsLittlesStillsBookRealEndsWholeTurnsNovelBloodSweetSmartYears AgoMy FavoriteSexyMoodWhole WorldInnocentThirtyCartoonIncarnationThirty YearsFoamFavorite BookIndigoDaze Author:Jim Krusoe
“No writer, I believe, should attempt a novel before he is thirty, and not then unless he has been hopelessly and helplessly involved in life. For the writer who goes out to find material for a novel, as a fishermen goes out to sea to fish, will certainly not write a good novel. Life has to be lived thoughtlessly, unconsciously, at full tilt and for no purpose except its own sake before it becomes, eventually, good material for a novel.” ShouldWritingBelieveHas BeensPurposeI BelieveNovelSeaMaterialsInvolvedSakeFishesThirtyFishermanTilt Author:Pearl S. Buck
“Seven years into writing a novel, I started to lose my mind. My thirty-seventh birthday had just come and gone, the end of 2008 was approaching, and I was constantly aware of how little I had managed to accomplish.” WritingYearsMindLittlesEndsLosesNovelGoneSevenAccomplishThirtySeven YearsSeventh Birthday Author:Akhil Sharma
“In my mind what novels do best is that they immerse us deeply into our character's world - they truly transport us deep into these spaces - but the same way you know a Hollywood movie won't end after thirty minutes, you carry in yourself the implicit contract that the novel won't throw you out of itself 'til the very end. That bulk of pages is a form of consolation, of security.” KnowsWorldWayMindEndsCharacterFormSpaceNovelMinutesSecurityPagesHollywoodThirtyContractsConsolationTransportImplicitHollywood Movies Author:Junot Diaz
“[Mark] Twain is pointing at you. You, the reader of the book one hundred and thirty years ago and today. That is what has made it a great American novel and the most widely read book in American Literature around the world today.” WorldYearsMadeBookTodayLiteratureNovelReaderHundredYears AgoMarkMade ItAround The WorldThirtyPointingWorld TodayThirty YearsGreat AmericanAmerican Literature Author:Hal Holbrook
“Because I think of novels as collaborative enterprises between the writer and the reader, all of my novels so far have ending with endings that maybe point in more than one direction, and that seems important to me because it seems important to me that after you've invested twenty or thirty hours of your imaginative life into this narrative that you have some stake in how it ends.” ThinkingImportantEndsSeemsHoursNovelReaderTwentiesNarrativeThirtyEnterpriseStakesImaginativeOne Direction Author:Emily Barton