Books Quote by Flannery O'Connor

Writing a novel is a terrible experience, during which the hair often falls out and the teeth decay. I'm always irritated by people who…

— Flannery O'Connor

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

— Sarah Dessen

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

— George Orwell

“To write a novel is fundamentally an act of impudence. To comb one's hair is also an act of impudence, especially when it's done…

— Paco Ignacio Taibo II

Writing a novel is agony.

— George Orwell

“Writing a book is like pulling strands out of your soul, one by one, until one day instead of a mess it finally looks…

— Ksenia Anske

Writing books is certainly a most unpleasant occupation. It is lonesome, unsanitary, and maddening. Many authors go crazy.

— H. L. Mencken

Aphorisms are bad for novels. They stick in the reader's teeth.

— Anatole Broyard

“Great books can be ruined by bad writers.”

— Travis Simmons

It's a terrible thing for a book, when you feel like you're supposed to like it.

— Lev Grossman

In order to be a living, breathing thing, a novel has to be failed in some kind of way. Or at least that's how…

— Dana Spiotta

It may sound very strange, but I love the freedom that writing a novel gives me. It is an unhindered experience. If I come…

— Ashwin Sanghi