Novelists Quotes

478 Novelists quotes by 343 unique authors

When I was in fourth grade, a novelist came to talk to my English class. She told us that being an author meant sitting at… — J. Courtney Sullivan
Life is a very bad novelist. It is chaotic and ludicrous. — Javier MarÃas
I am looking for the novelists whose writing is an extension of their intellect rather than an extension of their neurosis. — Tom Robbins
Screenwriting is a terrible way to make a living and I always try to talk anyone out of it. Until you sit in a story… — Unknown Author
It seemed to me you could do anything in comics. So I started doing my thing, which is mainly influenced by novelists, stand-up comedians, that… — Harvey Pekar
Short-story writing requires an exquisite sense of balance. Novelists, frankly, can get away with more. A novel can have a dull spot or two, because… — Lynn Abbey
I learned early on that war forms its own culture. The rush of battle is a potent and often lethal addiction, for war is a… — Chris Hedges
If human nature does alter it will be because individuals manage to look at themselves in a new way. Here and there people - a… — E. M. Forster
To speak today of a famous novelist is like speaking of a famous cabinetmaker or speedboat designer. Adjective is inappropriate to noun. — Gore Vidal
To capture the human cost of fallen empire with all its horror and absurdity, Sheets offers the right combination: the political insight of a top… — Martin Cruz Smith
Novelists do not write as birds sing, by the push of nature. It is part of the job that there should be much routine and… — William Golding
Yes, one uses what one knows, but autobiography means something else. I should never be able to write a real autobiography; I always end by… — Alberto Moravia
The novelist teaches the reader to comprehend the world as a question, — Milan Kundera
The novelist works neither to correct nor to condone, not at all to comfort, but to make what's told alive. — Eudora Welty
Here's a secret. Many novelists, if they are pressed and if they are being honest, will admit that the finished book is a rather rough… — Michael Cunningham
Both the historian and the novelist view history as the struggle of a tiny minority, able and determined to make judgments, which is up against… — Lion Feuchtwanger
I wanted nothing less than to be a fiction writer when I was a kid. If you had told me I would be an artist… — Caleb Carr
I never see a novel as a film while I'm writing it. Mostly because novels and films are so different, and I'm such an internal… — Alice Hoffman
I am a master of fiction. I am also the greatest crime novelist who ever lived. I am to the crime novel in specific what… — James Ellroy
A whim, a passing mood, readily induces the novelist to move hearth and home elsewhere. He can always plead work as an excuse to get… — C S Forester
A playwright must be his own audience. A novelist may lose his readers for a few pages; a playwright never dares lose his audience for… — Terence Rattigan
Novelists... fashioning nets to sustain and support the reader as he falls helplessly through the chaos of his own existence. — Fay Weldon
I'm not a novelist, I'm a storyteller. There is no art in what I do, no mystique. — Alistair Maclean
So far as love or affection is concerned, psychologists have failed in their mission. The little we know about love does not transcend simple observation,… — Unknown Author
Good girls like myself need subversion. Being solemn, I aspire to comedy. Being a novelist, I aspire to the musical. Being organized, I aspire to… — Janet Burroway

Who Wrote These Novelists Quotes

343 authors contributed a total of 478 Novelists Quotes, led by these top contributors: