“A screenwriter heard me read from my novel 'The Wishbones' when it was still in progress and mentioned me to some producers in Hollywood. They called, and I told them I had a novel in my drawer about a high school election that goes haywire. They asked to take a look, and my life changed pretty dramatically as a result.” LooksStillsSchoolResultsNovelProgressHeardChangedHigh SchoolHollywoodElectionProducersLife ChangingScreenwritersDrawersWishbones Author:Tom Perrotta
“I think writing a poem is like being a greyhound. Writing a novel is like being a mule. You go up one long row, then down another, and try not to look up too often to see how far you still have to go.” ThinkingWritingTryingLooksLongStillsNovelLook UpMulesGreyhounds Author:Ron Rash
“I know publishing now more as an author than with occasional peaks inside those elite offices than as an industry insider. It was difficult publishing a novel the first time around, while working behind the scenes, knowing all that has to happen to make a book a success and to still make the leap as an author.” KnowsFirstsStillsBookHappensDifficultBehindsNovelKnowingIndustrySceneOfficeFirst TimeLeapElitesPublishingOccasionalBehind The ScenesInsidersWorking Behind The Scenes Author:Jennifer Gilmore
“From the moment I start a new novel, life's just one endless torture. The first few chapters may go fairly well and I may feel there's still a chance to prove my worth, but that feeling soon disappears and every day I feel less and less satisfied.” FeelsFirstsWellsMayStillsMomentsFeelingsChanceNovelProveDisappearEndlessSatisfiedTortureJust OneChaptersDissatisfaction Author:Emile Zola
“I turned my thoughts to a still more novel mode... to compose pictures on canvas similar to representations on the stage... my picture is my stage, and men and women my players exhibited in a 'dumb' show.” MenStillsShowsNovelPlayerStageMen And WomenDumbCanvasRepresentationShow MeMy ThoughtsMethodology Author:William Hogarth
“The short story is still like the novel's wayward younger brother, we know that it's not respectable - but I think that can also add to the glory of it.” ThinkingKnowsStillsStoriesNovelBrotherGloryAddShort StoryRespectableYounger Brother Author:Neil Gaiman
“As an editor, I read Charlotte Rogan's amazing debut novel, 'The Lifeboat,' when it was still in manuscript. I read it in one night, and I really wanted my company to publish it, but we lost it to another house. It's such a wonderful combination of beautiful writing and suspenseful storytelling.” WritingStillsWantedBeautifulNightHouseLostCompanyNovelWonderfulStorytellingCombinationEditorsPublishOne NightManuscriptsDebutBeautiful WritingCharlotteLifeboats Author:Karen Thompson Walker
“In the usual way I submitted manuscripts to publishers. This was not so much a feeling that I should be published as a wish to escape the feared and hated drudgery of "normal" work. In my twenties some of my work for children was published by Macmillan. However, I was twenty-seven before my adult novel, The Birthgrave, was taken by DAW Books in the USA. This enabled me finally to stop doing stupid and soul-killing jobs, and start working day and night as a professional writer. It felt like a rescue from damnation, and still does.” WayShouldChildrenDoeStillsBookSoulFeelingsJobsNightWishFeltNovelTakenStupidNormalAdultsTwentiesSevenKillingHatedUsaUsualRescuePublishersDay And NightManuscriptsDamnationDrudgery Author:Tanith Lee
“I had been virtually a Unitarian (as I still am) but without knowing it. The experience of being among Unitarians who did know what they were, and attached much importance to it, was entirely novel to me, but I soon fell into their ways and found it easy to go forward on their road, the more so because the other roads became closed to me.” KnowsWayStillsFoundEasyNovelKnowingImportanceUnitarian Author:L. P. Jacks
“I wrote a whole novel before The Beach. Unpublishable. Junk. But, for some reason I stuck at novels and wrote a second. Still not sure why I didn't give up. Stubborn, maybe.” GivingStillsReasonWholeNovelGiving UpStuckBeachNot SureStubbornJunk Author:Alex Garland