“I am one of the writers who wish to create serious works of literature which dissociate themselves from those novels which are mere reflections of the vast consumer cultures of Tokyo and the subcultures of the world at large.” WorldCultureLiteratureWishNovelSeriousReflectionMereConsumersTokyoSubcultureConsumer CultureSerious Work Author:Kenzaburo Oe
“I used to think that: whenever I heard that someone had taken 10 years to write a novel, I'd think it must be a big, serious book. Now I think, 'No - it took you one year to write, and nine years to sit around eating Kit Kats.” ThinkingWritingYearsBookBigsUsedNovelTakenHeardSeriousEatingNineNine Years Author:Ian Rankin
“There's a tradition in American fiction that is deadly serious and earnest - like the Steinbeckian social novel.” SocialFictionNovelSeriousTraditionEarnest Author:John Hodgman
“Great, big, serious novels always get awards. If it's a battle between a great, big, serious novel and a funny novel, the funny novel is doomed.” IfsWritingBigsFunnyLiteratureNovelFateSeriousBattleAwardsDoomedAward WinningWinning Awards Author:Neil Gaiman
“Just as the camera draws a stake through the heart of serious portraiture, television has killed the novel of social reportage.” HeartSocialNovelTelevisionSeriousDrawsCamerasStakesPortraiture Author:Jonathan Franzen
“The seriousness or otherwise of the subject matter is often irrelevent to the question of whether a book is any good. F Scott Fitzgerald wrote a great and beautiful novel which mainly involved shallow people going to parties in a rich guy's house. By contrast, all sorts of terrible books are published every month about men slaughtering people for no reason - a serious matter which, in itself, does not make the author worthy of serious consideration.” PeopleMenDoeBookMatterReasonBeautifulGuyHouseLanguagePartyNovelRichSubjectsSeriousMonthsInvolvedTerribleWorthyConsiderationNo ReasonContrastShallowSeriousnessSubject MatterScott Fitzgerald Author:Declan Lynch
“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.” PeopleKnowsWayWritingYearsKindMeanBookSometimesProblemAgeInterestNovelCollegeSeriousTwentiesAshamedBe KindProfessorsGet OverImpotenceCollege Professors Author:Stephen King
“When I'm working on a serious and solid book ... I read about a detective novel a day. It's the best legal dope in the world. It makes you feel good until the next morning you can work again.” WorldFeelsBookNextMorningNovelSeriousFeel GoodDetectivesDopeMake You Feel Good Author:Mary Lee Settle
“Every serious novel is, beyond its immediate thematic preoccupations, a discussion of the craft, a conquest of the form, a conflict with its difficulties and a pursuit of its felicities and beauty.” FormNovelSeriousConflictDifficultyPursuitCraftsDiscussionConquestPreoccupationFelicityThematic Author:Ralph Ellison
“I think that books for young people should have serious and important themes, they shouldn't be trivial. So the books I write, they would be the kind of stories you would write in an adult novel only they just happen to feature a child at the center of them.” PeopleThinkingShouldWritingKindChildrenImportantBookStoriesHappensWould BeYoungNovelSeriousAdultsShould HaveFeaturesTheme Author:John Boyne
“I was a serious comic collector and fanboy as a kid. I wanted very badly to draw comic books for a lot of my childhood and early adolescence. So when you have an unfulfilled dream like that, when years later you find yourself in a position to make a graphic novel - hell yeah, I'm going to do that.” YearsBookDreamKidsWantedNovelHellChildhoodPositionSeriousDrawsYeahComicFinding YourselfAdolescenceComic BookGraphicCollectorsGraphic NovelsUnfulfilled DreamsHell Yeah Author:Anthony Bourdain
“I started out in life as a poet, I was only writing poetry all through my 20s, it wasn't until I was about 30 that I got serious about writing prose. While I was writing poems, I would often divert myself by reading detective novels, I liked them.” WritingReadingNovelSeriousPoetProseDetectivesWriting PoetryWriting Poems Author:Paul Auster
“The great European novel started out as entertainment, and every true novelist is nostalgic for it. In fact, the themes of those great entertainments are terribly serious-think of Cervantes!” ThinkingFactsNovelSeriousEntertainmentNovelistsThemeNostalgicVery True Author:Milan Kundera
“We can't write a serious novel in the 21st century without acknowledging the inescapable self-awareness we're stuck with. The idea we're surrounded by falsehoods and lies. It's hard for the thinking person to believe in narratives. And yet we want some place to invest our belief.” ThinkingWantWritingBelievePersonsIdeasSelfHardLyingBeliefNovelCenturyAwarenessSeriousSelf AwarenessStuckNarrativeFalsehood21st CenturyThinking Person Author:Michael Helm
“If ideas are what feed serious literature and arresting language, who today is writing a novel of ideas (which can often mean comedy)? I think of Joshua Cohen. Who else?” IfsThinkingWritingMeanIdeasTodayLiteratureLanguageNovelComedySeriousArresting Author:Cynthia Ozick
“I got interested in the question of literacy because writers are always moaning about why more people don't read books. They long for the good old days when people read serious novels.” PeopleLongBookNovelSeriousLiteracyOld DaysGood Old DaysMoaning Author:Robert Hass
“I certainly wake up every morning and thank God that I'm not a novelist because the theater is tough, but novel writing is infinitely harder. Especially with the economics of serious fiction being what they are in America.” WritingAmericaFictionMorningNovelSeriousToughEconomicsHarderWake UpTheaterNovelistsThank GodEvery MorningNovel Writing Author:Tony Kushner
“I always thought that I could write a novel. In my case, it was misguided. I do believe that the best nonfiction is not "literary journalism," a misleading term, but rather journalism that asks the questions that serious literature asks. It's storytelling that happens to be true. So I don't think it was a missed opportunity. After awhile you learn what you're really good at. Life is short, so spend time doing that.” ThinkingWritingBelieveLiteratureOpportunityTermNovelSeriousStorytellingBeing TrueJournalismEnd TimesSpend TimeLife Is ShortMisleadMissed Opportunity Author:Ron Rosenbaum