Believe Quote by Margery Allingham

I am one of those authors who believes (perhaps foolishly) that she is in complete control of the story.

— Megan Chance

An author's characters do what he wants them to do.

— W. E. B. Griffin

“The clientele was good for the mental novel she was writing, anyway—she needed a fictional population and she certainly was exposed to it here.…

— J.T. Ellison

Readers always seem to think that the author has some control over the design of their books.

— Anonymous

“She is a tyrant much in the way of a bad novelist, who shapes his characters according to his own ideology or desires and…

— Azar Nafisi

I know when I go and see a writer, the first thing I think to myself is, 'Are they the character in the book?'…

— Irvine Welsh

Characters to me are like sonnets, they have limits that you obey which allow a force to enter in, an invention that makes the…

— Alexander Chee

The writer has little control over personal temperament, none over historical moment, and is only partly in charge of his or her own aesthetic.

— Julian Barnes

Authors have odd relationships with their creations They owe their fame and fortune to their characters but feel enslaved by them.

— Anthony Horowitz

That's the fine balance of a fiction writer...to be able to give your characters enough freedom to surprise you and yet still maintain some…

— Alan Lightman

An author who speaks about their own books is almost as bad as a mother who speaks about her own children.

— Benjamin Disraeli

“That’s the only problem with novels,’ Mia said. ‘They give readers such high hopes that the real world can often be a bit of…

— Victoria Connelly