Books Quote by Jesse Ball

Every novelist has a different purpose-and often several purposes which might even be contradictory.

— Irwin Shaw

I actually started trying to be a professional writer with novels, and I wrote two that exist and are around... kind of. But they…

— Charles Soule

There are many reasons why novelists write, but they all have one thing in common - a need to create an alternative world.

— John Fowles

Novels are almost like music or poetry - they just come to me in simple sentences, whereas I think my pieces get more and…

— Joan Didion

I have two ideas for novels at the moment, neither of them all that conventional, but I'm not ready to choose between them yet,…

— Jonathan Coe

My novels are very much the same, as I think many people's novels are.

— Ann Patchett

As a reader, I try to love all the literary forms equally, but I probably read novels most often.

— Sally Rooney

“It perplexes me how many people write books where everyone comes from the same basic set of backgrounds—middle class, white, straight, etc. It's like…

— Scott Westerfeld

Each book tends to have its own identity rather than the author's. It speaks from itself rather than you. Each book is unlike the…

— E. L. Doctorow

I'm always writing across the same themes. But with short stories, I'm doing something different than with novels. In some ways, they're coming from…

— Lynn Coady

I try to write about things, places, events, and phenomena I know about personally. That helps make the novels more genuine.

— Lincoln Child

I always have the impression that I write the same book.

— Patrick Modiano