Best pages & novel Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings Page 2

“The manual for WordStar, the most popular word-processing program, is 400 pages thick. To write a novel, you have to read a novel - one that reads like a mystery to most people. They're not going to learn slash q-z any more than they're going to learn Morse code. That is what Macintosh is all about.”

People Writing Novel Mystery Pages Program Code Thick Manuals Processing Macintosh Morse Code

Author:Steve Jobs

“I think I was also afraid of the novel. I write line by line, proceeding at snail's pace, rewriting as I go and paring the excess away. This is against all the best advice for writing long form prose, and I have tried over the years to break myself of the habit, but I can't bear to leave anything ungainly on the page and half the fun for me is that tinkering. So the length of a novel was a daunting prospect.”

Thinking Writing Years Long I Can Form Fun Lines Half Break Novel Advice Bears Habit Pages Prose Length Pace Excess Proceeding Best Advice All The Best Rewriting Snail Tinkering

Author:Debra Dean

“The benefit of writing a collection - as opposed to a novel - is that I'm able to have some version of the war in each story without having to comment on its all-encompassing nature. Turn the page and here are new characters and new situations, but the war remains... Isn't that how life has been for us for over a decade?”

Writing Has Beens War Character Stories Able Turns Situation Novel Benefits Pages Remains Decades Versions Collections Comment New Situations

Author:Said Sayrafiezadeh

“I was born in the era of the novel. I've written many, as well as collections of poetry, and essays for mouthing off. I've written to inches, word-counts, page-counts, even the sonnet and the screenplay (which I call a plot poem). I write narrative. That's it. I just want to tell it.”

Want Writing Wells Born Novel Written Pages Eras Narrative Collections Plot Inches Essays Sonnet Screenplays

Author:Julianna Baggott

“One easy mistake to make with the first novel is to expand the short story. Some things are better as a story; you cannot dilute things into a novel. I think the first hundred pages of a novel are very important. That's where you set things up: the world, the characters. Once you've set that up, it'll be much easier.”

Thinking World Firsts Important Character Stories Easy Mistake Novel Easier Pages Hundred Short Story

Author:Yiyun Li

“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).”

“My boyfriend suggested I write two pages a day. He wouldn't take me out if I hadn't done my two pages. That's how I wrote my second novel.”

Ifs Writing Two Done Novel Pages Take Me My Boyfriend

Author:S. E. Hinton

“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.”

People Thinking Two Whole Bigs Film Three Asks Stuff Lines Novel Comedy Color Drama Pages Scripts Screens Limitation Genre Ask Me Big Screen

Author:Tommy Wiseau

“I wanted to write something that was very entertaining to read. The hardest part of this novel [The Yoga of Max's Discontent] was how to make a deeply spiritual transformation journey page-turning and adventurous. That was the hardest part to crack for me.”

Writing Wanted Spiritual Novel Journey Pages Yoga Transformation Hardest Cracks Entertaining Adventurous Discontent Max Spiritual Transformation Pages Turning

Author:Karan Bajaj

“When I was fifteen I wrote seven hundred pages of an incredibly bad novel - it's a very funny book I still like a lot. Then, when I was nineteen I wrote a couple hundred pages of another novel, which wasn't very good either. I was still determined to be a writer. And since I was a writer, and here I was twenty-nine years old and I wasn't a very good poet and I wasn't a very good novelist, I thought I would try writing a play, which seems to have worked out a little better.”

Writing Trying Years Littles Stills Book Play Seems Novel Poet Couple Pages Hundred Twenties Seven Very Good Determined Nine Novelists Fifteen Nine Years Nineteen Funny Book

Book:Conversations with Edward Albee

Source: Conversations with Edward Albee

“I wanted to be a writer, but the idea of writing novels or movies seemed really intimidating. I never got more than a few pages into one.”

Writing Ideas Wanted Novel Pages Intimidating

Author:Kurt Busiek

“There is an energy, a romance in writing the first novel that can never be duplicated again. I was entirely absorbed in that world as I wrote the book [The Kite Runner] and to see the final page of that manuscript whir out of the printer was a very special feeling indeed.”

World Writing Firsts Book Feelings Romance Energy Novel Special Pages Finals Runners Manuscripts Kites Printer

Author:Khaled Hosseini

“I'm not reading any novels right now, though not for lack of trying. Unless they're really good, my attention in most novels tends to sputter out after a hundred pages or so - an awful admission for someone who is trying to write one, but it's true.”

Writing Trying Reading Attention Novel Right Now Pages Hundred Awful Admission

Author:Matthew Healy

“I hate it when people tell me the end of the story because my mother always read the last page of a novel first to see whether she wanted to read it. It was a strange reading habit.”

People Firsts Ends Stories Wanted Lasts Mother Hate Reading Novel Strange Habit Pages I Hate Reading Habits

Author:Alice Hoffman

“Of course, there are hundreds of novels and authors that have influenced me. But to choose three, they are: Stephen King/The Stand (and really most of his books); Anne Rice/The Witching Hour; and Pat Conroy/The Prince of Tides. These authors write my favorite kind of book - epic feel, gorgeous prose, unique characters, and a pace that keeps you turning the pages. From them, I learned a lot about characterization, pacing, prose, voice, and originality.”

Feels Writing Kind Book Character Three Courses Voice Hours Novel Kings Pages Unique My Favorite Prose Pace Originality Tides Epic Gorgeous Rice Characterization Pacing

Author:Megan Chance

“I'm not typing. I write only by longhand. I've always written first drafts by hand and then once I was into a second or third draft I wrote insert pages on a typewriter. But I got rid of all my typewriters about three or four novels ago and now I do everything by hand. I write by hand because it makes me go slow and going slow is what I like.”

Writing Firsts Hands Three Novel Four Written Pages Thirds Typewriters Typing Insert

Author:John Irving

“For most of my life, when I've finished the book I'm writing, there've always been as many as two or three other novels waiting to be written next. And the decision driving which one of them it should be was never based on how long it had waited or how many accumulated pages of notes I had.”

Should Writing Long Two Book Three Next Waiting Decision Novel Written Pages Notes Finished Driving

Author:John Irving

“If you want to draw people into the story, you really have to write as if you're writing a novel and make these actually-existing people, including the actually-existing person with my name, into a believable person on the page. And that requires distance. That requires not being right up against the events you're talking about.”

People Ifs Want Writing Persons Stories Names Talking Novel Events Pages Draws Distance Including Believable

Author:Salman Rushdie

“I don't like to think in terms of writing ten or twelve pages a day. Usually I'm writing a scene, and it's always with the idea, "I wonder what is going to happen." Or sometimes I write about something that affected me emotionally the day before and that I don't want to lose. I'm very unorganized at first; but finally it comes into a structure where consciously I'm working on a novel per se.”

Thinking Want Writing Firsts Ideas Sometimes Happens Term Loses Wonder Novel Scene Ten Pages Structure Affected Twelve

Author:Robert Cormier

“If you read many contemporary literary novels today, you may notice that regardless of the subject matter there's a 'sameness' about them, the way in which thoughts are expressed and ideas, conveyed, the sometimes dogmatic application of what are, at best, useful maxims such as, 'less is more', the narrative techniques utilised, even the same, irritating, stylistic devices scattered like pepper all over the pages.”

Ifs Way May Ideas Sometimes Matter Today Novel Subjects Pages Technique Contemporary Narrative Devices Application Maxims Subject Matter Irritating Sameness Dogmatic Peppers Less Is More

Author:Suhayl Saadi

“I think it took me half a page of 'Wolf Hall' to think: 'This is the novel I should have been writing all along.'”

Thinking Should Writing Has Beens Half Novel Pages Should Have Halls Should Have Been

Author:Hilary Mantel

“I don't know who said that novelists read the novels of others only to figure out how they are written. I believe it's true. We aren't satisfied with the secrets exposed on the surface of the page: we turn the book around to find the seams.”

Knows Believe Said Book Turns I Believe Secret Novel Written Figures Pages Surface Satisfied Novelists Exposed

Author:Gabriel Garcia Marquez

“I always rewrite the very beginning of a novel. I rewrite the beginning as I write the ending, so I may spend part of morning writing the ending, the last 100 pages approximately, and then part of the morning revising the beginning. So the style of the novel has a consistency.”

Writing May Lasts Morning Novel Style Pages Consistency Revising

Author:Joyce Carol Oates

“I don't feel I write fast. I write in longhand and do so much revision. On the page, it's so old-fashioned. I could write a whole novel on scrap paper, scribbles and things. I keep looking at it and something develops. For me, using a word processor would mean staring at a screen for too many hours.”

Feels Writing Mean Whole Hours Novel Paper Pages Screens Staring Old Fashioned Scrap Revision Scribbles Processors

Author:Joyce Carol Oates

“If you read the first page of one of my novels, I can guarantee that you will read the last one. This isn't just social commentary. This is also about writing good page-turners. I want people to keep reading.”

People Ifs Want Writing Firsts I Can Lasts Reading Social Novel Pages Guarantees Commentary Guarantees That Turner

Author:Jodi Picoult

“Doing graphic novels is cool! It's fun! You get to write something, and then see it visually page by page, panel by panel, working with the artist, you get to see it fleshed out.”

Writing Artist Fun Novel Pages Graphic Graphic Novels

Author:Anthony Bourdain

“It was like a page torn from a history book, from some historical novel about the captivity of babylon or Spanish Inquisition.”

Book Novel Pages Historical Torn Captivity Inquisition History Books Babylon Historical Novels Spanish Inquisition

Author:Elie Wiesel

“A man is like a novel: until the very last page you don't know how it will end. Otherwise it wouldn't be worth reading.”

People Knows Men Ends Lasts Reading Novel Know How Pages Worth Reading

Author:Yevgeny Zamyatin

“Life is like a novel. It's filled with suspense. You have no idea what is going to happen until you turn the page.”

Ideas Happens Life Is Turns Novel Pages Filled Suspense No Idea Life And Love Life Is Like Suspense Novels

Book:The Other Side of Me

Source: The Other Side of Me

“A novel is a book with a lot of pages.”

Book Novel Pages

Author:Kathy Acker

“Well, this is a story about books." About books?" About accursed books, about a man who wrote them, about a character who broke out of the pages of anovel so that he could burn it, about a betrayal and a lost friendship. It's a story of love, of hatred, and of the dreams that live in the shadow of the wind." You talk like the jacket blurb of a Victorian novel, Daniel." That's probably because I work in a bookshop and I've seen too many. But this is a true story.”

Men Wells Book Character Stories Dream Lost Novel Wind Pages Shadow Hatred Betrayal Broke Jackets True Story Victorian Lost Friendship Bookshops Shadow Of The Wind

Book:The Shadow Of The Wind

Source: The Shadow Of The Wind

“We read five words on the first page of a really good novel and we begin to forget that we are reading printed words on a page; we begin to see images.”

Writing Firsts Reading Forget Novel Five Pages Printed Printed Word

Author:John Gardner

“...until that moment I had not understood that this was a story about lonely people, about absence and loss, and that that was why I had taken refuge in it until it became confused with my own life, like someone who has escaped into the pages of a novel because those whom he needs to love seem nothing more than ghosts inhabiting the mind of a stranger.”

People Needs Mind Moments Stories Seems My Own Loss Novel Taken Pages Understood Lonely Stranger Absence Ghost Confused That Moment Refuge My Own Life Lonely People

Book:The Shadow Of The Wind

Source: The Shadow Of The Wind

“I used to feel for years and years and years that I was very remiss not to have written a novel and I would question people who wrote novels and try to find out how they did it and how they had got past page 30. Then, with the approach of old age, I began to just think: “Well, lucky I can do anything at all.”

People Thinking Feels Trying Years Wells I Can Age Past Used Can Do Novel Written Lucky Approach Pages Old Age

Author:Alice Munro

“I find interesting characters or lessons that resonate with people and sometimes I write about them in the sports pages, sometimes I write them in a column, sometimes in a novel, sometimes a play or sometimes in nonfiction. But at the core I always say to myself, 'Is there a story here? Is this something people want to read?'”

People Want Writing Sometimes Play Character Stories Sports Interesting Novel Lessons Pages Core Nonfiction Columns Interesting Characters Writing Nonfiction

Author:Mitch Albom

“I had read a Tale of Two Cities and found it up to my standards as a romantic novel. She opened the first page and I heard poetry for the first time in my life...her voice slid in and curved down trough and over the words. She was nearly singing.”

Life Firsts Two Found Voice Cities Novel Heard Pages Singing Standards First Time Tales Trough Tale Of Two Cities I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings

Author:Maya Angelou

“The world has become sad because a puppet was once melancholy. The nihilist, that strange martyr who has no faith, who goes to the stake without enthusiasm, and dies for what he does not believe in, is a purely literary product. He was invented by Turgenev, and completed by Dostoevsky. Robespierre came out of the pages of Rousseau as surely as the People's Palace rose out debris of a novel. Literature always anticipates life. It does not copy it, but moulds it to its purpose.”

Source: De Profundis: The Ballad of Reading Gaol and Other Writings

“Mirabelle replaces the absent friends with books and television mysteries of the PBS kind. The books are mostly nineteenth-century novels in which women are poisoned or are doing the poisoning. She does not read these books as a romantic lonely hearts turning pages in the isolation of her room, not at all. She is instead an educated spirit with a sense of irony. She loves the gloom of these period novels, especially as kitsch, but beneath it all she finds that a part of her indentifies with all that darkness.”

“Making reality real is art's responsibility. It is a practical assignment, then, a self-assignment: to achieve, by a cultivated sensitivity for observing life, a capacity for receiving impressions, a lonely, unremitting, unaided, unaidable vision, and transferring this vision without distortion to it onto the pages of a novel, where, if the reader is so persuaded, it will turn into the reader's illusion.”

Ifs Art Real Self Reality Turns Responsibility Vision Novel Achieve Reader Pages Illusion Capacity Lonely Practicals Impression Receiving Sensitivity Observing Distortion Assignments

Book:On Writing

Source: On Writing

“Authors, she soon decided, were probably best met within the pages of their novels, and were as much creatures of the reader's imagination as the characters in their books. Nor did they seem to think one had done them a kindness by reading their writings. Rather they had done one the kindness by writing them.”

Thinking Writing Book Done Character Seems Reading Imagination Kindness Novel Reader Mets Creatures Pages Decided

Book:The Uncommon Reader

Source: The Uncommon Reader

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