Books Quote by Dana Spiotta

Writing a novel that works is an extremely difficult thing to do. It requires a level of skill and dedication that always surprises me.

— Bret Easton Ellis

One of the biggest mistakes people make is to think that what you need to write a novel is imagination, creativity and a facility…

— Kate Forsyth

Writing a novel in general is like trying to reach a mountain top you'll never quite reach - so you try again and maybe…

— Harlan Coben

I don't know how everyone writes a novel; that sounds exhausting.

— Raphael Bob-Waksberg

Life is painful and disappointing. It is useless, therefore, to write new realistic novels. We generally know where we stand in relation to reality…

— Michel Houellebecq

Writing a book is like running a marathon. You need to be fit to do it, mentally and, as far as possible, physically.

— Catherine Mayer

In the end I write the novels I need to write when I need to write them.

— Steve Erickson

“Writing a novel is just like life ... it's only in the doing of it that I find out what works.”

— Angela Young

You can't really succeed with a novel anyway; they're too big. It's like city planning. You can't plan a perfect city because there's too…

— Gore Vidal

Writing a novel is like childbirth: once you realize how awful it really is, you never want to do it again.

— Sarah Dessen

You have to wait for your mind to catch up with whatever it is it’s working on; then you can write a novel.

— James M. Cain

Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness.

— George Orwell