The materials of the novelist must be real; they must be gathered from the field of humanity by his actual observation. — Goldwin Smith Copy Share Image
He looks like a man.' 'How descriptive,' Susan said in a droll tone. 'Remind me never to advise you to seek work… — Julia Quinn Copy Share Image
I meet kids now who become novelists, poets, write for the theater and movies, who were simply inspired by what they saw… — Pat Conroy Copy Share Image
Lauren Kirshner creates a first-person narrator you never stop rooting for. . . . [Where We Have to Go] highlights Kirshner as… — Zoe Whittall Copy Share Image
In my view, the novelist has no right to express his opinions on the things of this world. In creating, he must… — Gustave Flaubert Copy Share Image
I'm not a reader of young adult fiction for the simple reason that these novelists are writing for adolescents, so they are… — Robert Cormier Copy Share Image
I used to describe myself as a comic novelist, but my concerns seem to have darkened over the past few years. — Tom Perrotta Copy Share Image
Be born anywhere, little embryo novelist, but do not be born under the shadow of a great creed, not under the burden… — Pearl S. Buck Copy Share Image
People really want to believe that there is no fiction. I think they find it much easier to imagine that novelists are… — Mark Leyner Copy Share Image
As a novelist, you could say that I am dreaming while I am awake, and every day I can continue with yesterday's… — Haruki Murakami Copy Share Image
Language leads a double life - and so does the novelist. You chat with family and friends, you attend to your correspondence,… — Martin Amis Copy Share Image
My grandmother's first husband was a spiritualist medium. What fascinates me about that is the balance between conviction and sincerity and trickery,… — Pat Barker Copy Share Image
If you want to understand human beings, there are plenty of people to go to besides psychologists… Most of these people are… — Anthony Standen Copy Share Image
There are so many other people involved in the making of a play or a television series or whatever... even if you're… — Peter Morgan Copy Share Image
When it [truth] emerges it often bears out the saying that 'truth is stranger than fiction.' A novelist has to appear plausible,… — Bill Vaughan Copy Share Image
I'm a very good storyteller; I have a lot of compassion for people. That's very useful for a novelist. A lot of… — James Patterson Copy Share Image
I resist when someone calls me a novelist: it implies some kind of inherent superiority of the novel. I'm not a novelist,… — Aleksandar Hemon Copy Share Image
Some Pulitzer winners - novelists - have confided to me that getting the prize screwed them up. It messed with their heads.… — Jeffrey Eugenides Copy Share Image
Short-story writing requires an exquisite sense of balance. Novelists, frankly, can get away with more. A novel can have a dull spot… — Lynn Abbey Copy Share Image
In Hollywood, they think they know it all. You, as a writer, are essentially an outsider. Novelists and short-story writers, especially. — Ray Bradbury Copy Share Image
It is fatal to know too much at the outcome: boredom comes as quickly to the traveler who knows his route as… — Paul Theroux Copy Share Image
It is not the office of a novelist to show us how to behave ourselves; it is not the business of fiction… — Agnes Repplier Copy Share Image
I'm a novelist who read a lot as a kid. When you grow up on books and then grow up to write… — Anonymous Copy Share Image
Novelists are always resisting autobiographical readings of their work, because they know how false those can be. — Jeffrey Eugenides Copy Share Image
Once I talked to the inmates of an insane asylum in Hartford. I have talked to idiots a thousand times, but only… — Mark Twain Copy Share Image
“Flora sighed. It was curious that persons who lived what the novelists call a rich emotional life always seemed to be a… — Stella Gibbons Copy Share Image
Poets and novelists and playwrights make themselves, against terrible resistances, give over what the rest of us keep safely locked within our… — Janet Malcolm Copy Share Image
Novelists have always had complete freedom to pretty much tell their story any way they saw fit. And that's what I'm trying… — Quentin Tarantino Copy Share Image
Wanting to know all kinds of things is perfect for novelists, because novelists are generalists. We're not specialists in anything, except, hopefully,… — Lynne Tillman Copy Share Image
The lesson you have to learn as novelist is how to be collaborative, and how to say, "I don't get to dictate… — Tom Perrotta Copy Share Image
The true novelist is one who understands the work as a continuous poem, is a myth-maker, and the wonder of the art… — Muriel Spark Copy Share Image
Christianity does not involve the belief that all things were made for man. it does involve the belief that god loves man… — C. S. Lewis Copy Share Image
I had always thought that the idea of love at first sight was one of those things invented by lady novelists from… — John Perry Barlow Copy Share Image
A whim, a passing mood, readily induces the novelist to move hearth and home elsewhere. He can always plead work as an… — C. S. Forester Copy Share Image
It is true that novelists are shameless and obey no decent law, and they are not to be trusted on any account,… — Catherynne M. Valente Copy Share Image
“I now understand that writing fiction was a seed planted in my soul, though I would not be ready to grow that… — Sue Monk Kidd Copy Share Image
“They are very large in effect, these painters; very little self-conscious; they have smooth broad spaces in their minds where I am… — Virginia Woolf Copy Share Image
If the novelist shares his or her problems with the characters, he or she is able to study his personal unconscious. — Manuel Puig Copy Share Image
Alternate history fascinates me, as it fascinates all novelists, because 'What if?' is the big thing. — Kate Atkinson Copy Share Image
To present a scientific subject in an attractive and stimulating manner is an artistic task, similar to that of a novelist or… — Max Born Copy Share Image
![“Lauren Kirshner creates a first-person narrator you never stop rooting for. . . . [Where We Have to Go] highlights Kirshner as a new novelist to watch. A very strong, original debut.” quote by Zoe Whittall](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e4f/zoe-whittall-57632_debut_lauren-kirshner-creates-a-first-person-n_1340753.png)
![“When it [truth] emerges it often bears out the saying that 'truth is stranger than fiction.' A novelist has to appear plausible, and would hesitate to make use of such astounding contradictions as occur in history through some extraordinary accident or twist of psychology .” quote by Bill Vaughan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/bfa/bill-vaughan-706_accidents_when-it-truth-emerges-it-often-bears-out_184836.png)
