The best picture has not yet been painted; the greatest poem is still unsung; the mightiest novel remains to be written; the… — Lincoln Steffens Copy Share Image
Two questions form the foundation of all novels: "What if?" and "What next?" (A third question, "What now?", is one the author… — Tom Clancy Copy Share Image
“When I pretended to be precocious, people started the rumor that I was precocious. When I acted like an idler, rumor had… — Osamu Dazai Copy Share Image
A novel is like an animal you have to hunt down and kill. If you let it sit for two days, it's… — Daniel Alarcon Copy Share Image
The hardest thing in a novel is time. You've got [a line like] "two weeks later, he woke up with a headache,"… — T.C. Boyle Copy Share Image
Special qualities are required of the essayist. A poem or a novel may spring from the inner consciousness of an author. Reasoning… — Flora Thompson Copy Share Image
I abhor crime novels in which the main character can behave however he or she pleases, or do things that normal people… — Anonymous Copy Share Image
I love rare books. Not that I own a lot of them, mind you. You couldn't quite call me a rare-book collector.… — Lev Grossman Copy Share Image
I think the recent cluster of WWII novels is so good because we have reached an optimal distance from the war. Just… — Chris Cleave Copy Share Image
Alice Adams wrote a sweet note to me after my first novel came out when I was 26, and I was so… — Anne Lamott Copy Share Image
It's a given that we exist in a world where we have to live in continuity every day; no one is immune… — Neil Gaiman Copy Share Image
Mostly it's lies, writing novels. You set out to tell an untrue story and you try to make it believable, even to… — Anne Tyler Copy Share Image
A new chapter in a novel is something like a new scene in a play; — Charlotte Bronte Copy Share Image
I'm extremely surprised to learn that a story, which has become familiar to children through the medium of comic strips and many… — Orson Welles Copy Share Image
I couldn't think about novels at all. It seemed the only writing that was appropriate to that horrendous event was journalism, reportage.… — Ian Mcewan Copy Share Image
When I need to take a side, I write a newspaper article and I tell my government, "You should not do that,… — Amos Oz Copy Share Image
Starting a novel is opening a door on a misty landscape; you can still see very little but you can smell the… — Iris Murdoch Copy Share Image
The great thing about novels is that you can be as unshy as you want to be. I'm very polite in person.… — Nicholson Baker Copy Share Image
"The Diagnosis" is by far my most ambitious book. I such great hopes for it... there was so much I wanted to… — Alan Lightman Copy Share Image
Then I decided I would spend the summer writing a novel. That would fix a lot of people. — Sylvia Plath Copy Share Image
Each piece of writing I undertake, whether a story, novel, play, or poem, begins with an image. — Norman Lock Copy Share Image
When you're depressed, you know, it's like the world has ended. Even getting out of bed takes the most massive amount of… — Sherman Alexie Copy Share Image
