Accurate Quote by John Dos Passos

Many novelists take well-defined, precise characters, whose stories are sometimes of mediocre interest, and place them in an important historical context, which remains secondary…

— Raymond Queneau

As a fiction writer, of course, you need to take some leeway with certain aspects of history to make the story work.

— Joseph Boyden

Writing historical novels can be dangerous. We need to be as accurate and as fair about the historical record as we can be, at…

— Edward Rutherfurd

Novels can be a snapshot of a moment in time, or several moments in time, and as a reader, that's what I really like,…

— Meg Wolitzer

I think a writer's first job is to entertain, even in novels: to tell a compelling story that pulls the reader along toward an…

— Noah Hawley

The historian records, but the novelist creates.

— Anonymous

I do write long, long character notes - family background, history, details of appearance - much more than will ever appear in the novel.…

— Anne Tyler

I believe in plot, in development of character, in the effect of the passage of time, in a good story - better than something…

— John Irving

Novelists have to be adept at controlling the flow of information, and, most crucially, they have to be in charge of the narrative.

— Ian Mcewan

Writers are the main landmarks of the past.

— Anonymous

A novel is a way to rethink and rewrite and re-envision the past, and also a way to speak to people who haven't been…

— Emily Barton

I think a novelist must be more tender with living or 'real' people. The moral imperative of having been entrusted with their story looms…

— Rick Bass