I was once doing a question and answer period with the novelist Jane Smiley in a bookstore and someone asked us what… — Edward Hirsch Copy Share Image
terrorism is interesting to a novelist because it's a crime that's driven by an idea, as opposed to some kind of base… — Karan Mahajan Copy Share Image
The better you know someone, the less well you often see them (and the less well they can therefore be transferred into… — Julian Barnes Copy Share Image
Science fiction is a literary field crowded with strong opinions, and no SF novelist delivered himself more memorably of his views -… — Paul Di Filippo Copy Share Image
“And once the novelist has brought us to this state, in which, as in all purely mental states, every emotion is multiplied… — Marcel Proust Copy Share Image
The novelist's--any writer's--object is to whittle down his meaning to the exactest and finest possible point. What, of course, isfatal is when… — Elizabeth Bowen Copy Share Image
Like most novelists, I like to do exactly the opposite of what I'm told. It's in my nature as a novelist. Novelists… — Haruki Murakami Copy Share Image
The trick to being a novelist is to act like an iceberg. Make it seem as if you're displaying only one-tenth of… — Vikram Seth Copy Share Image
The novelist has a responsibility to adhere to the facts as closely as possible, and if they are inconvenient, that's where the… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“Characters in novels sometimes radiate more energy, therefore, when we don’t enter their mind. It is one of the techniques a novelist… — Norman Mailer Copy Share Image
The advantage, the luxury, as well as the torment and responsibility of the novelist, is that there is no limit to what… — Henry James Copy Share Image
“I was asked the other day in which era I would choose to live. As a historical novelist, it comes up sometimes.… — Sara Sheridan Copy Share Image
It is my contention that a really great novel is made with a knife and not a pen. A novelist must have… — Frank Yerby Copy Share Image
It's hard to make a living as a novelist. My first novel 'Tapping the Source' made quite a splash in Hollywood, and… — Kem Nunn Copy Share Image
Like so many others, I came to romance during the golden age of it - Judith McNaught, Julie Garwood, Johanna Lindsey and… — Sarah MacLean Copy Share Image
I probably would have gone the M.F.A. route except I was a dad at 19, and it made more sense to go… — Jess Walter Copy Share Image
That balance between involvement and detachment is what novelists do. It's the ideal relationship between a novelist and a character, I think,… — Pat Barker Copy Share Image
As a romance novelist, I have a rather skewed view of babies. You see, they don't typically fit into the classic structure… — Sarah MacLean Copy Share Image
I don't think I knew that you could be a novelist. I think a lot of my students are in the same… — Rachel Cusk Copy Share Image
As a novelist, you deepen your characters as you go, adding layers. As a reporter, you try to peel layers away: observing… — Amy Waldman Copy Share Image
“The only real people are the people who never existed, and if a novelist is base enough to go to life for… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
“As a novelist it is my job to tell stories that inspire and entertain but I am increasingly mindful that many of… — Sara Sheridan Copy Share Image
You learn different things through fiction. Historians are always making a plot about how certain things came to happen. Whereas a novelist… — A. S. Byatt Copy Share Image
As a novelist, there are three phone calls you never expect to receive in your lifetime because if you waited for them… — Chris Bohjalian Copy Share Image
Why should a novelist not also be a historian? To force unnatural divisions within the English language is to work against its… — Peter Ackroyd Copy Share Image
“There are days when writing is within my power and a story unfolds along a course I've already chosen. And then there are… — Richelle E. Goodrich Copy Share Image
The business of a novelist is, in my opinion, to create characters first and foremost, and then to set them in the… — John Dos Passos Copy Share Image
The thought of the novelist lies not in the remarks of his characters or even in their introspection but in the plight… — Philip Roth Copy Share Image
“Reading poetry is like undressing before a bath. You don't undress out of fear that your clothes will become wet. You undress… — Kamand Kojouri Copy Share Image
I'm a novelist, a critic, an essayist - I tend to see politics as a subset of cultures rather than the other… — Walter Kirn Copy Share Image
Playing with different genres and perspectives and ways of telling stories is one of the perks of being a novelist, but at… — Linn Ullmann Copy Share Image
“The pleasures of being a novelist are many. But the greatest by far is the manner in which I live through my… — Richelle E. Goodrich Copy Share Image
I am a former newspaper reporter turned church secretary turned vampire novelist. I wrote my first complete novel, 'Nice Girls Don't Have… — Molly Harper Copy Share Image
I had wanted to be a novelist for so long, but I didn't have a story. That story came from the death… — Robert Crais Copy Share Image
“The novelist is like the conductor of an orchestra, his back to the audience, his face invisible, summoning the experience of music… — Sol Stein Copy Share Image
“A philosopher,' said Mrs. Cantanker, stalking across the study, black heels clicking, ruby silks whispering around her ankles, 'is one who attempts… — Stefan Bachmann Copy Share Image
In America they have to know just what you are-- novelist, poet, playwright... Well, I've been all of them... I think poems… — Robert Penn Warren Copy Share Image
I feel the responsibility of the novelist is to create a very complex world populated by very complex individuals and to deepen… — Pankaj Mishra Copy Share Image
Only a great genius like the Victorian novelist Elizabeth Gaskell can be mother, wife and novelist without solitude. I couldn't write until… — Jane Gardam Copy Share Image
“The only real people are the people who never existed, and if a novelist is base enough to go to life for… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
