Adventure Quote by Octavio Paz

“The inexperienced reader wants the essentially familiar combined with superficial novelty. Each story must have a slightly new setting or twist or "gimmick," though…

— Laurence Perrine

“[T]he narrative intelligences of our books should leave us feeling a bit pressed intellectually, a bit outmatched, amazed ultimately by the talent of the…

— Bryan Basamanowicz

A great novelist must open the reader's heart, allow the reader to remember the vastness and glory -- and shame and shabbiness -- of…

— Carolyn See

“A body of work, therefore, reveals the intellectual and emotional progress of the writer, and is a map of his soul. It's both terrifying…

— Dean Koontz

Everything a writer learns about the art or craft of fiction takes just a little away from his need or desire to write at…

— Raymond Chandler

Neil Gaiman has reached a masterful stage in his writing where he deserves his own adjective, which could be extended to younger writers following…

— Paul Di Filippo

“The novel is a hybrid genre and a large part of its charm arises from the alluvial nature of its materials. There is nothing…

— Enrique Vila-Matas

The novelist is the person who spends a lot of his or her day thinking about the human drama and emotional complexity.

— Thane Rosenbaum

“Sweet fiction, in which bravado and despair beckon from a cold panache, in which the protected essential self suffers flashes of its existence to…

— Frank Bidart

“A writer's style should be direct and personal, his imagery rich and earthy, and his words simple and vigorous. The greatest writers have the…

— Ernest Hemingway

So long as a novelist works selfishly for the pleasure of creating character and situation corresponding to his own illusions, ideals and intuitions, he…

— Willa Cather

A novel is a work of poetry. In order to write it, one must have tranquility of spirit and of impression.

— Fyodor Dostoevsky