Books Quote by Lionel Shriver

But you cannot expect every writer to dwell on human suffering. I think my books do deal with grave issues. People who say they…

— Alexander McCall Smith

Writing a novel is agony.

— George Orwell

People without hope not only don’t write novels, but what is more to the point, they don’t read them. They don’t take long looks…

— Flannery O'Connor

Holding this book in your hand, sinking back in your soft armchair, you will say to yourself: perhaps it will amuse me. And after…

— Honore de Balzac

But the writer who endures and keeps working will finally know that writing the book was something hard and glorious, for at the desk…

— Andre Dubus

“Almost everyone can remember losing his or her virginity, and most writers can remember the first book he/she walked away from thinking, "I can…

— Stephen King

God pity the poor novelist.

— Steven Millhauser

A book that bores me to tears is a book that neglects character building and quality of prose.

— Kristin Cashore

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

— Sarah Dessen

I have suffered for this book; now it's your turn.

— George Harrison

This Is Not a Novel memorializes the treasures and detritus of one man's singularly cultured mind. (...) If you don't know Writer's work at…

— Michael Dirda

“There is quite enough sorrow and shame and suffering and baseness in real life and there is no need for meeting it unnecessarily in…

— Theodore Roosevelt