Novelist Quotes

365 Novelist quotes by 274 unique authors

The memoirist, like the poet and the novelist, must engage the world, because engagement makes experience, experience makes wisdom, and finally it's the wisdom-or rather… — Vivian Gornick
I don't like to read novels where the novelist tells me what to think about the situation and the characters. I prefer to discover for… — Frederick Wiseman
Lawrence Kelter is an exciting new novelist, who reminds me of an early Robert Ludlum. — Nelson DeMille
The materials of the novelist must be real; they must be gathered from the field of humanity by his actual observation. — Goldwin Smith
The most common human act that writing a novel resembles is lying. The working novelist lies daily, very complexly and at great length. If not… — William Gibson
It is at least worth arguing that there is a modicum of the creative novelist in all of us, and that this absorption with how… — Humphrey Bogart
To call Clive Barker a 'horror novelist' would be like calling the Beatles a 'garage band'... He is the great imaginer of our time. He… — Quentin Tarantino
Is any novelist going to recognize the moment when he or she has nothing more to say? It is a brave thing to admit. And… — Julian Barnes
Rules such as "Write what you know," and "Show, don't tell," while doubtlessly grounded in good sense, can be ignored with impunity by any novelist… — Tom Robbins
TZETZE (or TSETSE) FLY, n. An African insect ("Glossina morsitans") whose bite is commonly regarded as nature's most efficacious remedy for insomnia, though some patients… — Ambrose Bierce
Between a high, solid wall and an egg that breaks against it, I will always stand on the side of the egg. No matter how… — Haruki Murakami
A novelist has a specific poetic license which also applies to his own life. — Jerzy Kosinski
There's a unique bond of trust between readers and authors that I don't believe exists in any other art form; as a reader, I trust… — Dan Simmons
The essayist has to follow a certain intellectual pattern. The novelist has the advantage of using fantasy, of being subjective. — Manuel Puig
I would never have been a novelist without working as a psychologist...it was a great education in human nature. — Jonathan Kellerman
Yes, but also one of the problems for a novelist in Ireland is the fact that there are no formal manners. I mean some people… — John McGahern
You get spoiled as a novelist because you get to be the director and the editor, and you play all the parts, but as a… — Jo Nesbo
I resist when someone calls me a novelist: it implies some kind of inherent superiority of the novel. I'm not a novelist, I'm a writer. — Aleksandar Hemon
When they can't win a debate (can they ever?), leftists deploy what the late novelist/philosopher Ayn Rand called the argument from intimidation. Instead of trying… — Don Feder
I had thought of writing, actually, and that later on I'd be a novelist. — Francois Truffaut
Be born anywhere, little embryo novelist, but do not be born under the shadow of a great creed, not under the burden of original sin,… — Pearl S. Buck
A novel is based on evidence, + or -x, the unknown quantity being the temperament of the novelist, and the unknown quantity always modifies the… — E. M. Forster
It is the function of the novelist to reveal the hidden life at its source: to tell us more about Queen Victoria than could be… — E. M. Forster
People in a novel can be understood completely by the reader, if the novelist can be understood completely by the reader, if the novelist wishes;… — E. M. Forster
It is never possible for a novelist to deny time inside the fabric of his novel: he must cling, however lightly, to the thread of… — E. M. Forster

Who Wrote These Novelist Quotes

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