Ability Quote by Ann Patchett

“If a writer of prose knows enough about what he is writing about, he may omit things that he knows and the reader, if…

— Ernest Hemingway

“Entering a novel is like going on a climb in the mountains: you have to learn the rhythm of respiration, acquire the pace; otherwise…

— Umberto Eco

A novel which survives, which withstands and outlives time, does do something more than merely survive. It does not stand still. It accumulates round…

— Elizabeth Bowen

“Writing novels allows the novelist to spend much of his time in a fictional world, which is really the only or at least the…

— Javier Marías

Although a novel takes place in the larger world, there's always some drive in it that is entirely personal - even if you don't…

— Joan Didion

“There is a brilliant novel in all of us. Some imagine it…others live it. Authors dwell in an auspicious life by having the ability…

— Carl Henegan

The novelist helps us to see things we might not notice otherwise.

— Madeleine L'Engle

Novel writing is solitary work.

— Mohsin Hamid

“A novel is an interminable effort. You think until you are weary. You write until you are ready to scream. You stop. You rest.…

— Anonymous

“Every writer is first a member of a community of readers, and the deepest purpose of reading and writing fiction is to sustain a…

— Jonathan Franzen

A novel must show how the world truly is. Somehow, reveals the true source of our actions.

— Jane Austen

“A novel worth reading is an education of the heart. It enlarges your sense of human possibility, of what human nature is, of what…

— Susan Sontag