Ambition Quote by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

I grew up reading a lot of these super weird, genre-bending Southern gothic writers.

— Karen Russell

I used to be very fascinated by Victorian stuff, and my best-known books, the 'Mortal Engines' series, have a sort of retro, Victorian vibe,…

— Philip Reeve

Then I found books that were written much later, as late as 15 years ago. It was very superficial material, but enough to tell…

— Charles Guggenheim

I went back into the older stories and reworked them, because I became a better writer over the years and could spot flaws. I…

— Tom Barbash

I wanted the chance to look again at very famous stories and see what made them work well, whether there were any ways in…

— Philip Pullman

I'm sure I've been influenced by every fine writer I've ever read, from Dickens and Austen to Auden and Jane Hirshfield. And also, the…

— Amy Bloom

I never got too specialized but did like the Southern Gothic writers like William Faulkner and Flannery O'Connor.

— Mat Kearney

I can read Middle English stories, Geoffrey Chaucer or Sir Thomas Malory, but once I start moving in the direction of contemporary fantasy, my…

— David Eddings

It would have been very easy to drift into writing a non-fiction book so by taking it away from Nottingham I forced myself to…

— Jon McGregor

Strip away the morphing landscapes and rips in the space-time continuum, and my stories are about things that novels have always been about: love…

— Steve Erickson

Research is always the best part. As we dug deeper into the history and mythology behind each of the hallows, we discovered more and…

— Michael Scott

I'm obsessed with the Victorian novel. I can't help it. I feel like the novel then was so powerful and agile in ways I'm…

— Jennifer Egan