“How on earth could that be done? If you try to laugh and say 'No' at the same time, it sounds like neighing - yet people are perpetually doing it in novels. If they did it in real life they would be locked up.” PeopleIfsWritingTryingRealDoneWould BeEarthSoundNovelLaughingReal LifeLockedLocked Up Author:Hilaire Belloc
“Back in high school, I wrote a novel about a character named Bart Simpson. I thought it was a very unusual name for a kid at the time. I had this idea of an angry father yelling "Bart," and Bart sounds kind of like bark - like a barking dog.” KindIdeasCharacterKidsSchoolFatherNamesSoundNovelDogHigh SchoolAngryUnusualBarkYellingBarking DogsUnusual NamesBart Simpson Author:Matt Groening
“It may sound very strange, but I love the freedom that writing a novel gives me. It is an unhindered experience. If I come after a bad day, I can decide that my protagonist will die on page 100 of my novel in a 350-page story.” IfsGivingWritingMayI CanStoriesDiesSoundNovelStrangePagesGive MeBad DayProtagonists Author:Ashwin Sanghi
“Jeremy Popkin's collection of first-person narratives of the Haitian Revolution is an extremely valuable work, accessible, sound and intelligent. I only wish such a book had been available fifteen years ago when I was in the early stages of researching my series of novels. Popkin has been deft and tactful in stitching together these excerpts, and as a result, he manages to tell a complete version of the Revolution almost entirely in the words of the people who experienced it-this book engaged me deeply.” PeopleYearsFirstsPersonsHas BeensBookTogetherWishSoundResultsNovelStageRevolutionYears AgoIntelligentSeriesAvailableValuableVersionsManageNarrativeEngagedCollectionsFifteenFirst PersonFifteen YearsHaitianHaitian Revolution Author:Madison Smartt Bell
“The idea that a student can write a sonnet or a novel without having a sound understanding about its history, and where it fits into literature as a whole, seems to me to be manifestly daft.” WritingIdeasWholeSeemsPoetryLiteratureUnderstandingSoundNovelStudentsFitSonnetDaft Author:Nicholas Royle
“A reader, encountering a sentence about a barking dog, would have to dwell on why that choice was made at that moment. Everything in a novel is explicitly chosen, whereas some of what a film captures feels incidental, according to the vagaries of photography and sound recording.” FeelsMadeMomentsFilmChoicesSoundNovelDogReaderPhotographySentencesChosenThat MomentCaptureBarking Dogs Author:Jonathan Lethem
“I think the most important thing is just to write. It sounds so simple, but sometimes it's not. You can get so distracted - -by having to work other jobs, or what other people have to say about your writing - -but the one thing that really matters is that you just keep going, especially when you're working on a novel. It's so easy to get discouraged and give up.” PeopleThinkingGivingWritingImportantSometimesMatterJobsEasySoundSimpleNovelOne ThingGiving UpImportant ThingsKeep GoingDiscouragedDistractedEasy To Get Author:Sarah Dessen
“I got a rejection letter from an editor at HarperCollins, who included a report from his professional reader. This report shredded my first-born novel, laughed at my phrasing, twirled my lacy pretensions around and gobbed into the seething mosh pit of my stolen clichés. As I read the report, the world became very quiet and stopped rotating. What poisoned me was the fact that the report's criticisms were all absolutely true. The sound of my landlady digging in the garden got the world moving again. I slipped the letter into the trash... knowing I'd remember every word.” WorldWritingFirstsFactsRememberMovingSoundBornNovelKnowingReaderQuietGardenCriticismLettersRejectionReportsEditorsLaughedStolenTrashPitsDiggingPretensionSeethingRotatingRejection Letters Author:David Mitchell