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Novel Quotes by Joyce Carol Oates
- I am inclined to think that as I grow older I will come to be infatuated with the art of revision, and there may come…
- Novels begin, not on the page, but in meditation and day-dreaming - In thinking, not writing.
- The novel is the affliction for which only the novel is the cure.
- The novel is perhaps the highest art form because it so closely resembles life: it is about human relationships. It's technique, page by page, resembles…
- As a teacher at Princeton, I'm surrounded by people who work hard so I just make good use of my time. And I don't really…
- Before you can write a novel you have to have a number of ideas that come together. One idea is not enough.
- I was writing novels in high school and apprenticed myself in a way both to Faulkner and to Hemingway.
- I always rewrite the very beginning of a novel. I rewrite the beginning as I write the ending, so I may spend part of morning…
- I don't feel I write fast. I write in longhand and do so much revision. On the page, it's so old-fashioned. I could write a…
- I wrote a novel called 'Blonde,' which is about Norma Jean Baker, who becomes Marilyn Monroe, which I called a fictitious biography. That uses the…
- I've always been interested in writing about people, including young children who are not able to speak for themselves. As in my novel 'Black Water,'…
- Novels usually evolve out of 'character.' Characters generate stories, and the shape of a novel is entirely imagined but should have an aesthetic coherence.
- Often in gothic novels there's a large house, an estate, and it's symbolic of that culture. Usually it's sort of moldering or rotted or something,…
- 'The Accursed' is very much a novel about social injustice as the consequence of the terrible, tragic division of classes - the exploitation not only…
- To be true to life, a novel must have an ending that is inevitable given the specific personalities of the characters involved. The novelist must…
- To write a novel is to embark on a quest that is very romantic. People have visions, and the next step is to execute them.…
- 'We Were the Mulvaneys' is perhaps the novel closest to my heart. I think of it as a valentine to a passing way of American…
- When I complete a novel I set it aside, and begin work on short stories, and eventually another long work. When I complete that novel…
- When I was very little, four or five, I did comic strip drawings, so my first novel had no words. I couldn't write and thought…
- Writers are notoriously unable to know about themselves. Faulkner thought 'The Fable' was his best novel. F. Scott Fitzgerald liked 'Tender Is the Night,' an…
- Yes, 'Black Girl/White Girl' might be described as a 'coming-of-age' novel, at least for the survivor Genna. It is also intended as a comment on…
More Novel Quotes
- I started out in life as a poet; I was only writing poetry all through my 20s. It wasn't until I was… — Paul Auster
- Once a novel gets going and I know it is viable, I don't then worry about plot or themes. These things will… — Chinua Achebe
- I don't think the relationship between novels and realities are one to one. Of course novels play different roles. It's essentially just… — Margaret Atwood
- I was once a graduate student in Victorian literature, and I believe as the Victorian novelists did, that a novel isn't simply… — Margaret Atwood
- The object is very clear in the fight against racism; you have reasons why you're opposed to it. But when you're writing… — Margaret Atwood
- There's no lack of writers writing novels in America, about America. Therefore, it seems to me it would be wasteful for me… — Chinua Achebe
- The ear tends to be lazy, craves the familiar and is shocked by the unexpected; the eye, on the other hand, tends… — Wystan Hugh Auden
- Hemingway is terribly limited. His technique is good for short stories, for people who meet once in a bar very late at… — Wystan Hugh Auden
- The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid. — Jane Austen
- For me, a paragraph in a novel is a bit like a line in a poem. It has its own shape, its… — Paul Auster
- Movies are not novels, and that's why, when filmmakers try to adapt novels, particularly long or complex novels, the result is almost… — Paul Auster
- I keep thinking I'll enjoy suspense novels, and sometimes I do. I've read about 20 Dick Francis novels. — Nicholson Baker