Country Quote by John Updike

I've seen a lot of the United States, having stayed in so many different cities and towns for work. It's such a strange and…

— Hope Davis

Evidently, there are many great American writers. But sometimes it can feel as though American fiction is dominated by relatively linear narrative form, with…

— Katie Kitamura

As a writer one doesn’t belong anywhere. Fiction writers, I think, are even more outside the pale, necessarily on the edge of society. Because…

— William Trevor

American writers want to be not good but great; and so are neither.

— Gore Vidal

Japan, Germany, and India seem to me to have serious writers, readers, and book buyers, but the Netherlands has struck me as the most…

— Paul Theroux

There's no lack of writers writing novels in America, about America. Therefore, it seems to me it would be wasteful for me to add…

— Chinua Achebe

In a democracy in the 20th and 21st century, if you can't base your fiction upon ordinary people and the issues that engage them,…

— John Updike

Fiction, on the whole, and if it is any good, tends to be a subversive element in society.

— Fay Weldon

“Let me be very clear. For me geography does not exist! I strongly object to the whole concept of “foreign literature”...and speaking of national…

— Antonio Lobo Antunes

I'm a bit skeptical about the possibilities for resistant fiction, and even more despondent over the potential for politically engaged writing to do much…

— Davis Schneiderman

And, of course, some SF is set close enough to here and now that Anglo and European do apply. Since many of the writers…

— Stanley Schmidt

Fantastic fiction covers fantasy, horror and science fiction - and it doesn't get the attention it deserves from the literati.

— China Mieville