You must understand that when you are writing a novel you…

You must understand that when you are writing a novel you are not making anything up. It's all there and you just have to…

— Thomas Harris

“To write a novel, you begin with what you can see and then you add what came before and what came after. ...You must…

— Thomas Harris

Writing a novel, I am making is an object that has a life and identity of its own, apart from me.

— Jay Neugeboren

There is no better way of elevating the novel than by making it into a construct which contains ideas.

— Heinrich Mann

“The longer I am a writer--so long now that my writing finger is periodically numb--the better I understand what writing is; what its function…

— Alice Walker

I do believe that reading can help you understand what you're writing and see what others are doing. But sometimes the desire for more…

— Manuel Puig

“In my classes, we read great fiction obsessively, and then attempt to see how a writer managed to affect us. We try to understand…

— Dean Bakopoulos

“MFA in a Box is designed to help you to find the courage to put truth into words and to understand that writing is…

— John Rember

There was a time before I felt I was a real writer, when I was a yarn spinner and I just wanted to tell…

— Joss Whedon

My aunt could never understand how writing could be a full-time job. She'd keep asking when I'd get a real job!

— Ken Spillman

“Things that only a writer would understand—you’re writing a character—you tell that character who she or he is and they stop you and make…

— Lisa Marbly-Warir

My writing model is my mother, who is a writer as well. She always valued clarity and simplicity above all else. If someone doesn't…

— Malcolm Gladwell

Understand that writing is like an athletic activity. To play tennis well, you expect to keep practicing, but for some reason with writing, you…

— Natalie Goldberg

“Advice? Focus on the craft. Study the greats. Try and understand how and why they made the writing choices they did.”

— Patrick Stump

I love that "furious and gorgeous barrage." That helps me see the relation between the introduction and the book's final section, where writing about…

— Laura Mullen