Books Quotes by Barbara Kingsolver

People read books to escape the uncertainties of life.

— Barbara Kingsolver

“You just read your books and go on a hundred miles away, You ignore me.”

— Barbara Kingsolver

The first sentence of a book is a promise.

— Barbara Kingsolver

I learned to write by reading the kind of books I wished I'd written.

— Barbara Kingsolver

Quit smoking in the hope of growing old. It takes a long time to write. People go to books for wisdom and…

— Barbara Kingsolver

“A novel has to entertain -- that's the contract with the reader: you give me ten hours and I'll give you a…

— Barbara Kingsolver

How strange to read of a place in a book, and then stand on it, listen to the birds sing, and spit…

— Barbara Kingsolver

Pay attention to your passions. They are the key to starting and finishing the book you are meant to write. I don't…

— Barbara Kingsolver

“A novel! Why do you say this won't liberate anyone? Where does any man go to be free, whether he is poor…

— Barbara Kingsolver

Good fiction creates empathy. A novel takes you somewhere and asks you to look through the eyes of another person, to live…

— Barbara Kingsolver

We're surrounded by mandates, and I believe that literature should be mandate-free. I feel very strongly about that.

— Barbara Kingsolver

I attempted briefly to consecrate myself in the public library, believing every crack in my soul could be chinked with a book.

— Barbara Kingsolver

“He's not from here, that's the thing," Cub said. "Just because he's the outsider, he has no say? Should we not read…

— Barbara Kingsolver

“I thought everything in the world was already discovered. Already in my books. A lot of dead stuff that put me to…

— Barbara Kingsolver

Literature is one of the few kinds of writing in the world that does not tell you what to buy, want, see,…

— Barbara Kingsolver

Plot comes first. The plot is the archictecture of your novel. You wouldn't build a house without a plan. If I wrote…

— Barbara Kingsolver

“We newspaper readers all have our pet vexations. Somewhere in one of those sections is the column we anxiously turn to for…

— Barbara Kingsolver

“When the rain pours down especially, we have long hours of captivity, in which my sisters determinedly grow bored. But are there…

— Barbara Kingsolver

You always need that spark of imagination. Sometimes I'm midway through a book before it happens. However, I don't wait for the…

— Barbara Kingsolver

“I should like to write my books only for the dear person who lies awake reading in bed until page last, then…

— Barbara Kingsolver

Gilbert has established herself as a straight-up storyteller who dares us into adventures of worldly discovery, and this novel stands as a…

— Barbara Kingsolver

the novel is inherently a political instrument, regardless of its subject. It invites you - more than invites you, induces you -…

— Barbara Kingsolver

If my setting is new to a reader, or the concerns of the novel are new, I hope they will learn something…

— Barbara Kingsolver

Literature duplicates the experience of living in a way that nothing else can, drawing you so fully into another life that you…

— Barbara Kingsolver

Watching Italians eat (especially men, I have to say) is a form of tourism the books don't tell you about. They close…

— Barbara Kingsolver

A novel can educate to some extent, but first a novel has to entertain. That's the contract with the reader: you give…

— Barbara Kingsolver

If someone does learn about the world from reading a novel of mine, that makes me very happy. It's probably not what…

— Barbara Kingsolver

I think that when people read fiction, they're really reading for wisdom. I am. That's what most of us really love. If…

— Barbara Kingsolver

“A novel works it's magic by putting a reader inside another person's life. The pace is as slow as life. It's as…

— Barbara Kingsolver

“I took my time exploring. I savored the first minutes in a new home. Carlos would always go straight to unpacking boxes,…

— Barbara Kingsolver

When you pick up a novel from the bed side table, you put down your own life at the same time and…

— Barbara Kingsolver

Literature sucks you into another psyche. So the creation of empathy necessarily influences how you'll behave to other people.

— Barbara Kingsolver

I don't bring expectations to any of my books. I don't tell people what to do. I want to invite them in.

— Barbara Kingsolver

I'm never going to tell the reader what to believe; I'm going to examine these characters that believe different ways, and examine…

— Barbara Kingsolver

Most every book I bring into the world is like birthing a baby; it's a lot of effort!

— Barbara Kingsolver

Most of my books have been about the complex ways an individual depends on community.

— Barbara Kingsolver

People in my novels always have terrible problems. If they are not terrible, I make them more terrible.

— Barbara Kingsolver

“I vow I shall give all my very best books to the underprivileged, once I have read them”

— Barbara Kingsolver

Write a nonfiction book, and be prepared for the legion of readers who are going to doubt your fact. But write a…

— Barbara Kingsolver

I believe with all my heart in delivering on my contract with my readers. They've got plenty of other things to do,…

— Barbara Kingsolver