Novelist Quotes

365 Novelist quotes by 274 unique authors

A novelist is, like all mortals, more fully at home on the surface of the present than in the ooze of the past. — Vladimir Nabokov
Happy is the novelist who manages to preserve an actual love letter that he received when he was young within a work of fiction, embedded… — Vladimir Nabokov
Manners are of such great consequence to the novelist that any kind will do. Bad manners are better than no manners at all, and because… — Flannery O'Connor
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… — Joyce Carol Oates
I'm a very good storyteller; I have a lot of compassion for people. That's very useful for a novelist. A lot of novelists are snots.… — James Patterson
I know that books I have written will still resonate in 50 years - particularly 'My Sister's Keeper.' It has sold three million copies in… — Jodi Picoult
If the novelist shares his or her problems with the characters, he or she is able to study his personal unconscious. — Manuel Puig
A novelist who writes nothing for 10 years finds his reputation rising. Because I keep on producing books they say there must be something wrong… — J. B. Priestley
If the novelist isn't surprised by where his book ends up, he or she probably hasn't written anything worth remembering. — Tom Robbins
I can't promise that every child with learning differences will become a novelist, but I do think all children can become lifelong readers. — Rick Riordan
I've always liked the idea that writing is a form of travel. And I started my writing career as a mystery novelist for adults. — Rick Riordan
Sometimes writing a novel is not unlike having a baby. You'd have to ask a female novelist to compare the pain. — Salman Rushdie
A couple years ago, the novelist Russell Banks told me he was reading the ancient Greek historian Herodotus. I asked why. He said, 'Because I've… — Richard Russo
I am a better novelist than a poet, playwright, or essayist. — Jose Saramago
In effect I am not a novelist, but rather a failed essayist who started to write novels because he didn't know how to write essays. — Jose Saramago
The painter paints, the musician makes music, the novelist writes novels. But I believe that we all have some influence, not because of the fact… — Jose Saramago
I hate this word 'graphic novel.' It is a term publishing houses have created for the bourgeois so they wouldn't be ashamed of buying comics...… — Marjane Satrapi
The novelist, quite rightly, fears the psychoanalyst as both an enemy and a usurper. — Will Self
An urban novelist never minds a little decay. — Jane Smiley
I read all of Rider Haggard's books. For me he had the romance of Africa with a little bit of mysticism. I'm delighted to be… — Wilbur Smith
I don't really consider myself a novelist, it just came out purely by accident. — Wole Soyinka
The novel, for me, was an accident. I really don't consider myself a novelist. — Wole Soyinka
To be a novelist, all I need is a pen and a piece of paper. — Quentin Tarantino
Mark Twain was a great traveler and he wrote three or four great travel books. I wouldn't say that I'm a travel novelist but rather… — Paul Theroux
Jane Austen was an extraordinary woman; to actually be able to survive as a novelist in those days - unmarried - was just unheard of. — Julie Walters

Who Wrote These Novelist Quotes

274 authors contributed a total of 365 Novelist Quotes, led by these top contributors: