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Novel Quotes

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Novel Quotes

“When you saw the movie "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," that was Michael [Jackson]'s story write large. Born as an elderly person, Benjamin Button was, in the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel and in the film starring Brad Pitt, he dies as a newborn child. Michael Jackson's childhood was one of enormous, prodigious production.He was a child prodigy, he was a wunderkind.”

“Sometimes I say that writing a novel is the same as constructing a chair: a person must be able to sit in it, to be balanced on it. If I can produce a great chair, even better. But above all I have to make sure that it has four stable feet.”

Ifs Writing Persons I Can Sometimes Able Novel Four Feet Produce Chairs Stable Balanced

Author:Jose Saramago

“I don't write poetry or short stories. I don't like to write articles usually. I tend to really only want to be focused on writing novels. It's one of the real advantages I've had over the years. I've only been good at one thing. It helps to be limited.”

Want Writing Years Real Helping Stories Novel One Thing Advantage Focused Articles Short Story

Author:Markus Zusak

“I went into journalism in a grandiose way. I thought maybe I'd do a little journalism whilst I write the great novel of all time you see -- one has to keep oneself afloat.”

Way Writing Littles Novel Oneself All Time Journalism Grandiose Great Novels

Author:Neal Ascherson

“I want to write a novel so profound that it would suffocate a fly.”

Want Writing Novel Profound

Book:Buying a Fishing Rod for My Grandfather: Stories

Source: Buying a Fishing Rod for My Grandfather: Stories

“The thing is that my first novel, which was basically a mystery adventure story, won quite an important award in Spain for young adult fiction, and because of this it became a very successful book, and right now it's some sort of a standard title, it's read widely in many high schools in Spain, so I think, in a way, I was a victim of my own success in the field of young adult fiction, because it was never my own natural register. I never intended to write that kind of fiction, but I became very successful at it.”

“I would like to write a novel, or at least try to write one, although my motives are not entirely pure. For one thing, I get asked about writing novels so much that I feel guilty about never having written one. And although I have no strong desire to write a novel, I would hate not to try. That would just be silly. On the other hand, I hate the idea of slogging through something that turns out to be not good.”

Feels Writing Trying Ideas Hands Desire Hate Turns Strong Novel Written One Thing Pure I Hate Silly Guilty Motive Being Silly Strong Desire

Author:Kelly Link

“I write what I want to write. Period. I don't write novels-for-hire using media tie-in characters, I don't write suspense novels or thrillers. I write horror. And if no one wants to buy my books, I'll just keep writing them until they do sell--and get a job at Taco Bell in the meantime.”

Ifs Want Writing Book Character Jobs Novel Media Periods Horror Sells Suspense Ties Bells Thrillers Using Me Tacos Taco Bell Suspense Novels

Author:Bentley Little

“I think the internet is a great marketing tool--but marketing is not my job. I'm a writer. My job is to write novels.”

Thinking Writing Jobs Novel Internet Tools Marketing Great Marketing

Author:Bentley Little

“The writing of a novel or short story or poem or whatever should elevate the audience, not drag the writer down to some level beneath herself. And she - the author - should fight always to prevent that dragging down, especially when the only possible benefit of allowing it to happen is monetary.”

Should Writing Stories Happens Fighting Levels Novel Audience Benefits Allowing Short Story Drag Monetary

Author:Caitlín R. Kiernan

“Somewhere In Time is the story of a love which transcends time , What Dreams May Come is the story of a love which transcends death . ... I feel that they represent the best writing I have done in the novel form.”

Feels Writing May Done Stories Dream Form Novel End Times Somewhere In Time

Author:Richard Matheson

“Writing the middle of a novel is a lot like driving through Texas. You think it's never going to end, and the scenery looks the same.”

Thinking Writing Looks Ends Novel Middle Driving Texas Scenery

Book:How to Write Killer Fiction: The Funhouse of Mystery & the Roller Coaster of Suspense

Source: How to Write Killer Fiction: The Funhouse of Mystery & the Roller Coaster of Suspense

“What's the challenge in writing a novel that few people will read? I'm more than happy writing what I do and have no plans to change that.”

People Writing Literature Challenges Novel Plans

Author:Nicholas Sparks

“And it [Fight Club novel] was written so general that my father thought I was writing about his father, and my boss thought I was writing about his boss. People really put themselves, you know, in the shoes of the narrator.”

People Knows Writing Fighting Father Novel Written Shoes Clubs Boss Narrators Fight Club Novel

Author:Chuck Palahniuk

“The age of the book is not over. No way... But maybe the age of some books is over. People say to me sometimes 'Steve, are you ever going to write a straight novel, a serious novel' and by that they mean a novel about college professors who are having impotence problems or something like that. And I have to say those things just don't interest me. Why? I don't know. But it took me about twenty years to get over that question, and not be kind of ashamed about what I do, of the books I write.”

People Knows Way Writing Years Kind Mean Book Sometimes Problem Age Interest Novel College Serious Twenties Ashamed Be Kind Professors Get Over Impotence College Professors

Author:Stephen King

“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.”

Way Writing Trying Important Problem Able Stuff Cases Novel Wife Teaching Tvs Hollywood My Wife Income Novelists Employers Supplements Making A Living

Author:Michael Chabon

“For me, the goal is always to write a novel that I myself would like to read. People frequently ask me what my favorite book is, and in effect, there's always a capital-F Favorite, capital-B Book that I would like to write myself someday. I try to go for that ideal of writing the best, most entertaining, most beautifully written book that I possibly can.”

People Writing Trying Book Asks Goal Novel Written Effects Ideals My Favorite Ask Me Someday Entertaining Favorite Book

Author:Michael Chabon

“I'm never going to be a Tom Clancy. And I wouldn't really want to be - not that I have anything against him, and I wish him continued success - because that's not why I'm writing novels. I'm doing it because I have to. I feel like I have to, anyway.”

Want Feels Writing Wish Novel Toms Continued Success

Author:Michael Chabon

“If Edgar Allan Poe were alive today, his agent would be constantly slapping him upside the head with tightly rolled copies of his brilliant short stories and novelettes, yelling, 'Full-length novels, you moron! Pay attention! What's the matter with you -- are you shooting heroin or something? Write for the market! No more of this midlength 'Fall of the House of Usher' crap”

“People do tell a writer things that they don't tell others. I don't know why, unless it is that having read one or two of his books they feel on peculiarly intimate terms with him; or it may be that they dramatize themselves and, seeing themselves as it were as characters in a novel, are ready to be as open with him as they imagine the characters of his invention are.”

People Knows Feels Writing May Two Book Character Term Novel Imagine Seeing Ready Invention Intimate

Author:W. Somerset Maugham

“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.”

Should Writing Believe Has Beens Purpose I Believe Novel Sea Materials Involved Sake Fishes Thirty Fisherman Tilt

Author:Pearl S. Buck

“Never, if you can possibly help it, write a novel. It is, in the first place, a thoroughly unsocial act. It makes one obnoxious to one's family and to one's friends. One sits about for many weeks, months, even years, in the worst cases, in a state of stupefaction.”

Ifs Writing Years Firsts States Helping Cases Novel Week Worst Months Obnoxious

Author:Pearl S. Buck

“Just about everything significant in my life happened after I passed forty. I was a housewife and mother, but yearned to be a writer. I worked at my writing whenever I could snatch a moment, and I assembled several manuscripts. I was just about forty when my first novel, East Wind, West Wind, was published. Then a few months later came The Good Earth. My career was launched at last, and it has given me the richest possible satisfaction”

Writing Firsts Moments Earth Lasts Mother Given Careers Novel Happened Wind Months West Satisfaction East Significant Forty Housewife Manuscripts Life Happens Good Earth

Author:Pearl S. Buck

“Modern reformers offer nebulous theories or write philanthropic novels. But your thief acts! He is as clear as a fact and as logical as a punch on the nose! And what a style he has!”

Writing Facts Novel Clear Modern Style Theory Offers Noses Logical Thieves Philanthropic Reformers

Author:Honore de Balzac

“to write a novel in the heart of London is next to an impossibility. I feel as if I were nailing a flag to the top of a mast in a raging gale.”

Ifs Feels Writing Heart Next Novel London Rage Flags Impossibility Gale Masts

Book:A Change of Perspective

Source: A Change of Perspective

“I believe that the main thing in beginning a novel is to feel, not that you can write it, but that it exists on the far side of a gulf, which words can't cross: that it's to be pulled through only in a breathless anguish.”

Feels Writing Believe I Believe Sides Novel Crosses Anguish Breathless Far Side

Book:A Change of Perspective

Source: A Change of Perspective

“a novel is not born of a single idea. The stories I've tried to write from one idea, no matter how terrific an idea, have sputtered out and died by chapter three. For me, novels have invariably come from a complex of ideas that in the beginning seemed to bear no relation to each other, but in the unconscious began mysteriously to merge and grow. Ideas for a novel are like the strong guy lines of a spider web. Without them the silken web cannot be spun.”

Writing Ideas Matter Stories Guy Three Strong Grows Born Lines Novel Bears Relation Died Complexes Unconscious Chapters Spiders Terrific Spun Spider Web

Author:Katherine Paterson

“I write poems about relationships, love relationships, and I'm not able to do that all the time. I could go two years without writing poems, and then write a dozen. Having a novel to work on, with the intricate puzzle of character and plot to work out, is satisfying for the time there is no poetry.”

Writing Years Two Character Able Novel Work Out Plot Two Years Satisfying Dozen Puzzles Intricate Love Relationship Writing Poems

Author:May Sarton

“My own feeling is that the only possible reason for engaging in the hard labor of writing a novel, is that one is bothered by something one needs to understand, and can come to understand only through the characters in the imagined situation.”

Needs Writing Hard Reason Character Feelings My Own Situation Novel Labor Engaging Bothered

Book:Writings on Writing

Source: Writings on Writing

“Yes, writing a novel, my boy, is like driving pigs to market - you have one of them making a bolt down the wrong lane; another won't get over the right stile.”

Writing Boys Novel Driving Pigs Get Over Lanes Bolts My Boys Stiles

Book:Collected Impressions

Source: Collected Impressions

“Mostly it's lies, writing novels. You set out to tell an untrue story and you try to make it believable, even to yourself. Which calls for details; any good lie does.”

Writing Trying Doe Stories Lying Novel Details Untrue True Story Believable Good Lies

Author:Anne Tyler

“Personally, I do not believe that it is the duty of any man or woman to write a novel. In nine cases out of ten, there would be greater merit in leaving it unwritten.”

Men Writing Believe Would Be Cases Novel Greater Duty Ten Leaving Nine Merit Unwritten

Book:Varia

Source: Varia

“Some of my youthful readers are developing wonderful imaginations. This pleases me. When I was young I longed to write a great novel that should win me fame. Now that I am getting old my first book is written to amuse children. For aside from my evident inability to do anything "great," I have learned to regard fame as a will-o-the-wisp which, when caught, is not worth the possession; but to please a child is a sweet and lovely thing that warms one's heart and brings its own reward.”

“writers of novels are so busy being solitary that they haven't time to meet one another. But then, a writer learns nothing from a writer, conversationally. If a writer has anything witty, profound or quotable to say he doesn't say it. He's no fool. He writes it.”

Ifs Writing Novel Havens Fool Profound Busy Witty Solitary

Book:A Kind of Magic

Source: A Kind of Magic

“A lot of novelists start late-Conrad, Pirandello, even Mark Twain. When you're young, chess is all right, and music and poetry. But novel-writing is something else. It has to be learned, but it can't be taught. This bunkum and stinkum of college creative writing courses! The academics don't know that the only thing you can do for someone who wants to write is to buy him a typewriter.”

Knows Want Writing Young Courses Can Do Novel Creative Taught College Late Mark Chess Novelists Creative Writing Typewriters Novel Writing

Author:James M. Cain

“From the beginning. I was a poem-writing child. I wrote little novels in my composition book when I was eight, nine years old.”

Writing Years Children Littles Book Novel Eight Nine Composition Nine Years

Author:Joan Larkin

“I think authors are just realizing there's no real reason to feel limited to a narrow set of genre rules in their writing. There's no reason a mystery novel can't have fantastic elements in it. Similarly, there's no reason why your epic fantasy series can't have elements of a mystery.”

Thinking Feels Writing Real Reason Realizing Fantasy Novel Mystery Elements Series Fantastic Genre Reason Why No Reason Epic Mystery Novels

Author:Patrick Rothfuss

“I never think about a movie when I'm writing a book, because I think only two things could happen and both of them are bad. You write a lousy novel and a lousy film.”

Thinking Writing Two Book Happens Film Novel Two Things Writing A Book

Author:Don Winslow

“In modern novels I try to not let myself get away and to be here, and that's why I write about my life and myself. But even when I do that there's an element of disappearing to a place that's not me. It's "the selflessness of writing". It seldom happens, but when it does it's worth quite a lot.”

Writing Trying Doe Happens Novel Modern Elements Disappear Get Away Selflessness Modern Novel

Author:Karl Ove Knausgard

“When you write a book, you want to have fidelity to the character. Characters and their emotions guide the structure of the novel. The author is aware that there's a certain amount of information she/he has to provide in order to satisfy the reader, knowing that she/he has set something up that must be paid off, but this payment must be made while maintaining fidelity to the characters.”

Want Writing Made Book Character Certain Order Emotion Novel Knowing Information Reader Amount Paid Structure Guides Maintaining Payment Fidelity Paid Off

Author:David Bezmozgis

“Writing a novel, in an unplanned and unpredictable way, makes you engaged; it takes you into yourself, and it becomes something between you and the character for a moment, and then you move back into the structure of the book. I love those moments, because they are completely unbidden.”

Way Writing Book Moments Character Moving Novel Structure Engaged Unpredictable

Author:David Bezmozgis

“When you write a book, you want to have fidelity to the character. Characters and their emotions guide the structure of the novel.”

Want Writing Book Character Emotion Novel Structure Guides Fidelity

Author:David Bezmozgis

“It has always seemed to me that if you could talk about your work in fully-formed phrases, you wouldn't write it. The writing is the statement, you see, and it seems to me that the poem or the story or the novel you write is the kind of metaphor you cast on life.”

Ifs Writing Kind Stories Seems Novel Casts Metaphor Statements Phrases

Author:Hortense Calisher

“One of the marks of true genius is a quality of abundance. A rich, rollicking abundance, enough to give indigestion to ordinary people. Great artists turn it out in rolls, in swatches. They cover whole ceilings with paintings, they chip out a mountainside in stone, they write not one novel but a shelf full. It follows that some of their work is better than other. As much as a third of it may be pretty bad. Shall we say this unevenness is the mark of their humanity - of their proud mortality as well as of their immortality?”

Source: The Nature of the Artist: An Address Delivered at the Dedication Ceremonies for Lee Pattison Recital Hall, Wilbur Hall, Mary Kimberly Residence Hall

“I don't think you should write something as long as a novel around anything that is not of the gravest concern to you and everybody else and for me this is always the conflict between an attraction for the Holy and the disbelief in it that we breathe in with the air of the times.”

Thinking Should Writing Long Novel Air Holy Conflict Concern Breathe Attraction Disbelief

Author:Flannery O'Connor

“When I'm really involved or getting towards the end of a novel, I can write for up to ten hours a day. At those times, it's as though I'm writing a letter to someone I'm desperately in love with.”

Writing I Can Ends Hours Novel Involved Ten Letters

Book:Conversations with Joyce Carol Oates

Source: Conversations with Joyce Carol Oates

“Whenever I get lost in a novel I just throw a poem in. What it does is flare up, and it's so illuminated that I'm able to see where to go. I write between these illuminations.”

Writing Doe Able Poetry Lost Novel Illumination Flare Flare Up

Author:Kate Braverman

“The only difficulty is to know what bits to choose and what to leave out. Novel-writing is not creation, it is selection.”

Knows Writing Bits Novel Creation Difficulty Selection Novel Writing

Book:Letters to a Friend

Source: Letters to a Friend

“The kind of response I hope for when I write my novels for children: to give them a chance to recognize something of their own feelings -- about themselves, their parents, their friends -- and their own situation as a kind of subject race, always at the mercy of the adults who mostly run their lives for them.”

Giving Writing Kind Children Feelings Running Parent Chance Race Situation Novel Subjects Adults Mercy Response

Author:Nina Bawden

“I began to write short pieces when I was living in a room too small to write a novel in.”

Writing Rooms Novel Pieces

Author:Angela Cartwright