Books Quote by Ellen Goodman

for me the novel is a social vehicle, it reflects society.

— Margaret Atwood

Novel-writing is a highly skilled and laborious trade. One does not just sit behind a screen jotting down other people's conversation. One has for…

— Evelyn Waugh

I know that the last thing a book wants is to just sit around unread, serving as an element of interior decorating. So when…

— Barbara Ehrenreich

Where the novel makes use of material from my life it does so because it's aesthetically convenient, not because of any allegiance it has…

— Garth Greenwell

Legitimately produced, and truly inspired, fiction interprets humanity, informs the understanding, and quickens the affections. It reflects ourselves, warns us against prevailing social follies,…

— Henry Theodore Tuckerman

Being an unpublished novelist has about as much social acceptability as being a shopping bag lady.

— James Frey

In a story, the craftsmanship is fully exposed. A novel is like charity; it covers a multitude of faults.

— Thea Astley

“Rows and rows of books lined the shelves and I let my eyes linger on the sturdy spines, thinking how human books were, so…

— Kim Edwards

Well, when I am fifty-three or so I would like to write a novel as good as Persuasion but with a modern setting, of…

— Stella Gibbons

The economy of a novelist is a little like that of a careful housewife who is unwilling to throw away anything that might perhaps…

— Graham Greene

There's a recycling mentality about my work.

— Wangechi Mutu

We trust to novels to train us in the practice of great indignations and great generosity.

— Henry James