Best Novelists Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings Page 24

“After I convinced them that I was a harmless novelist, I actually got them to give me a tour of the harem - which is usually off limits for tourists.”

Giving Limits Give Me Convinced Novelists Tourists Tourism Harem

Author:Dorothy Dunnett

“The memoirist, like the poet and the novelist, must engage the world, because engagement makes experience, experience makes wisdom, and finally it's the wisdom-or rather the movement toward it-that counts.”

World Writing Movement Poet Novelists Engagement

Book:The Situation and the Story: The Art of Personal Narrative

Source: The Situation and the Story: The Art of Personal Narrative

“I don't like to read novels where the novelist tells me what to think about the situation and the characters. I prefer to discover for myself.”

Thinking Character Situation Novel Novelists Recycling

Author:Frederick Wiseman

“Lawrence Kelter is an exciting new novelist, who reminds me of an early Robert Ludlum.”

Exciting Novelists

Author:Nelson DeMille

“The materials of the novelist must be real; they must be gathered from the field of humanity by his actual observation.”

Real Humanity Fields Materials Observation Novelists Being Real

Book:Lectures and Essays

Source: Lectures and Essays

“The most common human act that writing a novel resembles is lying. The working novelist lies daily, very complexly, and at great length.”

Ifs Writing Humans Might Lying Difficult Imagination Common Novel Active Vanity Novelists Programming Length Deceiving

Author:William Gibson

“It is at least worth arguing that there is a modicum of the creative novelist in all of us, and that this absorption with how men get out of difficulties, single-handedly and alone if possible, is the stuff of which we weave the warp and woof of our own better dramatic imaginings.”

Ifs Men Stuff Creative Difficulty Arguing Novelists Dramatic Absorption Warp

Author:Humphrey Bogart

“When the whole world is running towards a cliff, he who is running in the opposite direction appears to have lost his mind.”

World Mind Whole Running Lost Mistake Crazy Opposites Mad Whole World Insane Novelists Cliffs

Author:C. S. Lewis

“To call Clive Barker a 'horror novelist' would be like calling the Beatles a 'garage band'... He is the great imaginer of our time. He knows not only our greatest fears, but also what delights us, what turns us on, and what is truly holy in the world. Haunting, bizarre, beautiful.”

Knows World Would Be Beautiful Turns Holy Calling Horror Band Delight Novelists Our Time Bizarre Haunting Garage Greatest Fear Our Greatest Fear

Author:Quentin Tarantino

“Readers no longer need novelists to tell us what it's like to cross the world on a ship or fight a war. In the twenty-first century, we get that information in other ways. The thing that's still a mystery to us is the human heart. What we want is to understand people, what they're doing, and why they're doing it.”

People World Way Want Needs Firsts Humans Heart Stills War Fighting Mystery Century Information Reader Crosses Twenties Ships Novelists Human Heart

Author:Walter Mosley

“I think women are foolish to pretend they are equal to men, they are far superior and always have been.”

Thinking Men Has Beens Women Equal Men And Women Foolish Superiors Novelists Pretending Strong Women Superiority Women Strength

Author:William Golding

“I cannot and do not live in the world of discretion, not as a writer, anyway. I would prefer to, I assure you - it would make life easier. But discretion is, unfortunately, not for novelists.”

World Easier Novelists Discretion

Author:Philip Roth

“I didn't realize it, but the days came along one after another, and then two years were gone, and everything was gone, and I was gone.”

Source: The Short Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald: A New Collection

“Is any novelist going to recognize the moment when he or she has nothing more to say? It is a brave thing to admit. And since as a professional writer you are full of anxiety anyway, you could easily misread the signs.”

Moments Anxiety Brave Novelists

Book:Conversations with Julian Barnes

Source: Conversations with Julian Barnes

“Rules such as "Write what you know," and "Show, don't tell," while doubtlessly grounded in good sense, can be ignored with impunity by any novelist nimble enough to get away with it. There is, in fact, only one rule in writing fiction: Whatever works, works.”

Knows Writing Enough Facts Shows Fiction Novelists Get Away Ignored Grounded Good Sense Writing Fiction Impunity Nimble Whatever Works

Author:Tom Robbins

“Art is not a democracy. People don't get to vote on how it ends.”

People Art Ends Democracy Art Is Vote Novelists Voting Artistic Freedom

Author:George R. R. Martin

“TZETZE (or TSETSE) FLY, n. An African insect ("Glossina morsitans") whose bite is commonly regarded as nature's most efficacious remedy for insomnia, though some patients prefer that of the American novelist ("Mendax interminabilis").”

Nature Disease Patient Novelists Bites Remedy Insects Insomnia

Book:The Devil's Dictionary: The Devil World

Source: The Devil's Dictionary: The Devil World

“There's no sauce in the world like hunger.”

World Funny Food Humorous Hunger Hungry Novelists Sauce

Book:The History Of the Renowned Don Quixote De la Mancha

Source: The History Of the Renowned Don Quixote De la Mancha

“Amos Oz is one of the finest novelists of this entire period. MY MICHAEL is a beautiful work of great depth and in some indescribable way lingers in the mind as a lyric song to his country's people as much as a moving love story.”

People Way Mind Country Stories Beautiful Moving Song Periods Depth Love Story Novelists Finest Indescribable

Author:Arthur Miller

“One of the cruelest things you can do to another person is pretend you care about them more than you really do.”

Persons Real Care Can Do Wise Words Caring Novelists Pretending Not Caring

Book:Life After God

Source: Life After God

“There is something so deeply visceral about libraries for me-rooms and rooms full of people dreaming and remembering.”

People Dream Remember Reading Rooms Library African American Novelists Reading Books Visceral

Author:Jacqueline Woodson

“I think novelists are in the education business, really, but they're not teaching you times tables, they are teaching you responsiveness and morality and to make nuanced judgments. And really to just make the planet look a bit richer when you go out into the street.”

Thinking Looks Bits Streets Teaching Planets Morality Judgment Tables Novelists Responsiveness

Author:Martin Amis

“John Lane has long been recognized as one of the South's finest poets and memoirists. This debut establishes him as one of our finest novelists as well. His poet's eye for detail seamlessly merges with a born storyteller's gift for narrative. Fate Moreland's Widow gives voice to those who endured one of the most painful and neglected chapters in American history.”

Giving Wells Long Eye Voice Born Fate Poet South Painful Details Narrative Novelists Chapters American History Finest Storyteller Neglected Lanes Widows Debut Eye For Detail

Author:Ron Rash

“I became fascinated by the fact that people write to give away rather than write to be read. It's the difference between playwrights and novelists.”

People Giving Writing Facts Differences Novelists Fascinated Playwright

Author:David Suchet

“Life is to be lived, not controlled, and humanity is won by continuing to play in face of certain defeat.”

Life Play Reality Faces Life Is Certain Humanity Winning Inspiring Inspirational Life Failure Defeat Live Life Novelists Controlled Scholar Continuing Living My Life

Book:Invisible Man

Source: Invisible Man

“An artist is a man who says a difficult thing in a simple way”

Men Way Art Artist Difficult Simple Novelists Difficult Things Artistry Simple Ways

Book:More Notes of a Dirty Old Man: The Uncollected Columns

Source: More Notes of a Dirty Old Man: The Uncollected Columns

“Tony Vigorito has grown a cult following of thousands for one reason - his stuff is fun to read... It's... filled with the freshness and the freewheeling independence that made his reputation... This book is the 'work' of one of the least pretentious and most enjoyable to read novelists at play in America today.”

Made Book Reason Play Today America Fun Stuff Independence Filled Following Reputation Novelists Cult Enjoyable Pretentious Freshness America Today

Author:Kris Saknussemm

“A novelist has a specific poetic license which also applies to his own life.”

Novelists Poetic License Poetic License

Book:Oral Pleasure: Kosinski as Storyteller: Kosinski as Storyteller

Source: Oral Pleasure: Kosinski as Storyteller: Kosinski as Storyteller

“On lady novelists: As artists they're rot, but as providers they're oil wells; they gush. Norris said she never wrote a story unless it was fun to do. I understand Ferber whistles at her typewriter.”

Wells Said Stories Artist Fun Understanding Oil Novelists Typewriters Providers

Author:Dorothy Parker

“There's a unique bond of trust between readers and authors that I don't believe exists in any other art form; as a reader, I trust a novelist to give me his or her best effort, however flawed.”

Giving Believe Art Form Effort Trust Reader Unique Give Me Don't Believe Novelists Flawed Best Effort

Author:Dan Simmons

“The essayist has to follow a certain intellectual pattern. The novelist has the advantage of using fantasy, of being subjective.”

Certain Literature Fantasy Intellectual Advantage Patterns Novelists Subjective Subjectivity Essayists

Author:Manuel Puig

“Women need to become literary "criminals," break the literary laws and reinvent their own, because the established laws prevent women from presenting the reality of their lives.”

Needs Writing Reality Law Literature Women Break Criminals Novelists Presenting Preventing Essayists Reinvention Breaking The Law

Author:Kathy Acker

“Many novelists take well-defined, precise characters, whose stories are sometimes of mediocre interest, and place them in an important historical context, which remains secondary in spite of everything.”

Wells Important Sometimes Character Stories Interest Remains Historical Defined Novelists Spite Precise Mediocre Historical Context

Author:Raymond Queneau

“I would never have been a novelist without working as a psychologist...it was a great education in human nature.”

Humans Has Beens Human Nature Novelists Psychologist Great Education

Author:Jonathan Kellerman

“Yes, but also one of the problems for a novelist in Ireland is the fact that there are no formal manners. I mean some people have beautiful manners but there's no kind of agreed form of manners.”

People Kind Mean Facts Problem Beautiful Form Manners Novelists Ireland Formal

Author:John McGahern

“The best of our fiction is by novelists who allow that it is as good as they can give, and the worst by novelists who maintain that they could do much better if only the public would let them.”

Ifs Giving Fiction Worst Novelists

Author:James M. Barrie

“A mind attacked and conquered is guided easily away from the paths of its own soul.”

Mind Soul Path Conquer Novelists Guidance Manipulation Attacking

Book:Very Young Poets

Source: Very Young Poets

“America may have great poets and novelists, but she never will have more than one necromancer.”

May America Poet Novelists Great Poet

Book:Bits of Gossip

Source: Bits of Gossip

“Drawing Dead is a brilliant noir from one of Australia's most exciting new novelists.”

Exciting Brilliant Drawing Novelists Australia Noir

Author:Adrian McKinty

“You get spoiled as a novelist because you get to be the director and the editor, and you play all the parts, but as a screenwriter, you are a bit down the ladder.”

Play Bits Directors Novelists Editors Ladders Spoiled Screenwriters

Author:Jo Nesbo

“I do not think men have more talent. There are a great many women in the arts; novelists, painters, sculptors, poets-but the proportion is far lower in the field of song writing.”

Thinking Men Writing Art Song Talent Fields Poet Painter Novelists Proportion Great Men Sculptors

Author:Dorothy Fields

“I resist when someone calls me a novelist: it implies some kind of inherent superiority of the novel. I'm not a novelist, I'm a writer.”

Kind Novel Novelists Call Me Inherent Superiority

Author:Aleksandar Hemon

“Most writers are not quick-witted when they talk. Novelists, in particular, drag themselves around in society like gut-shot bears.”

Society Particular Bears Shots Novelists Guts Drag Quick Witted

Author:Kurt Vonnegut

“When they can't win a debate (can they ever?), leftists deploy what the late novelist/philosopher Ayn Rand called the argument from intimidation. Instead of trying to refute the other side, they label their opponents' position evil, attribute sinister motives to its adherents, and charge that its proponents are encouraging violence.”

Trying Evil Politics Winning Sides Violence Position Late Argument Philosopher Debate Labels Novelists Opponents Motive Attributes Intimidation Sinister Leftists Can't Win

Author:Don Feder

“I had thought of writing, actually, and that later on I'd be a novelist.”

Writing Novelists

Author:Francois Truffaut

“Be born anywhere, little embryo novelist, but do not be born under the shadow of a great creed, not under the burden of original sin, not under the doom of Salvation.”

Littles Born Sin Shadow Originals Salvation Burden Novelists Creeds Doom Original Sin Embryos Sins Not

Author:Pearl S. Buck

“A novel is based on evidence, + or -x, the unknown quantity being the temperament of the novelist, and the unknown quantity always modifies the effect of the evidence, and sometimes transforms it entirely.”

Sometimes Fiction Novel Effects Evidence Novelists Quantity Temperament

Author:E. M. Forster

“It is the function of the novelist to reveal the hidden life at its source: to tell us more about Queen Victoria than could be known, and thus to produce a character who is not the Queen Victoria of history.”

Character Fiction Known Produce Source Function Queens Novelists Victoria

Book:Aspects Of the Novel

Source: Aspects Of the Novel

“People in a novel can be understood completely by the reader, if the novelist can be understood completely by the reader, if the novelist wishes; their inner as well as their outer life can be exposed.”

People Ifs Wells Wish Novel Reader Understood Novelists Exposed

Book:Aspects Of the Novel

Source: Aspects Of the Novel

“It is never possible for a novelist to deny time inside the fabric of his novel: he must cling, however lightly, to the thread of his story, he must touch the interminable tapeworm, otherwise he becomes unintelligible, which, in his case, is a blunder.”

Stories Time Cases Novel Deny Novelists Thread Fabric Blunders

Book:Aspects Of the Novel

Source: Aspects Of the Novel

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Novelists Quotes