Books Quote by John Irving

“Writing a novel is actually searching for victims. As I write I keep looking for casualties. The stories uncover the casualties." (Interview in Writers…

— John Irving

“Writing the forenames and family names of the victims down, with no other detail of age, or place, would fill twenty books. To begin…

— Philip Gourevitch

As a literature student, I put pen to paper in times of devastating tragedy, I just try to make sense of it. Maybe I'll…

— Samuel Kermis

As for suspense, I like to write books that draw you into the hero's plight from the opening pages, where people put their lives…

— Andrew Gross

Since 1966, hundreds of books have been published that follow murderers along their paths of destruction. Every serial killer, it seems, now has a…

— Eric Schlosser

You have to go out of your way as a suspense novelist to find situations where the protagonists are somewhat helpless and in real…

— Nelson DeMille

Many great novels have shown a world torn to shreds by the brutality of war. To do so, their authors ground their texts in…

— Uzodinma Iweala

Casualties? What do I care about casualties?

— Aylmer Hunter-Weston

The only story that seems worth writing is a cry, a shot, a scream. A story should break the reader's heart.

— Susan Sontag

I believe that literature always goes precisely there where the damage to a person has been done.

— Herta Muller

Stead of no war take a look and stead of the violence take a book and report to history. Trace up the mystery.

— Tarrus Riley

The only book worth writing is the book that threatens to kill you.

— Terry Tempest Williams