Books Quote by Michael Ondaatje

The first sentence of every novel should be: Trust me, this will take time but there is order here, very faint, very human. Meander…

— Michael Ondaatje

If you read the novel, you have expectations. And, if you've seen something first, it's just hard to do.

— Chloe Grace Moretz

“Misunderstanding and distrust—the predominant elements of a novel. Without them, everyone lives happily from beginning.”

— Carmen DeSousa

“A novel is always more complicated than it seems at the beginning. Indeed a novel should be more complicated than it seems at the…

— John Irving

“Readers will be swept up by the drama and fast pace of this powerful debut novel.”

— International Reading Association Reading Today Online

“This is how it happens: you spend your life reading, reading, and reading more, waiting, waiting, and waiting for something to be incredible. Each…

— Chris Pavone

A novel is often a longer process in handling self-doubt.

— Robert Sheckley

“If this were a novel, you'd have to start a new chapter as soon as I appeared.”

— Jasper Fforde

“When you read, don't consider only what the author thinks, but take time to consider what you think.”

— N.H. Kleinbaum

A lot of first novels are written long before they're actually put down on paper.

— Roger Ebert

If one waits for the right time to come before writing, the right time never comes.

— James Russell Lowell

“I have 50 or 60 pages on the [new] novel but I still expect to be a long time at it. It’s a theme…

— Flannery O'Connor