9378 quotes by novelists for you to enjoy

A mathematical proof is beautiful, but when you're finished, it's really only about one thing. A story can be about many things. Bonnie Jo Campbell

Beautiful You Finished One Thing Proof About Only Mathematical Story Really Many Thing Things

I read stories aloud at every stage. I listen to my writer friends when they kindly offer criticism. I listen to my husband when he tells me something doesn't seem right. I have my mother's boyfriend, Loring Janes, read to make sure I get everything right with the machines and guns. Bonnie Jo Campbell

Me Mother Criticism Husband Stage Every Everything Machines Tells Kindly Guns Seem Something Writer He Aloud Make Read Sure Boyfriend Friends Offer Get Listen Stories Right

For 'King Cole's American Salvage,' I rode around in the wrecker with a local driver and watched him deal with customers and hook up the cars. I watched the guy who tore apart the cars in the junkyard. I also wrote poems about those guys. I loved hanging around the yard. Bonnie Jo Campbell

Car King Local Those Hook About Guy Guys Poems Driver Also Wrote Him Around Deal Yard Rode Up Salvage American Hanging Loved Apart Customers Who Watched

I love writing about men. To get by in the world you have to know how men think. Not that all guys think alike, but women tend to think about more things at the same time, an overgeneralization, but I find it easier to make my male characters focus than I do my female characters. Bonnie Jo Campbell

Love Time You Women Writing World Focus Men Think Alike Easier Characters Find About Guys More Tend Know Make Female Female Characters How Male Than Get Same Same Time Things

So long as we can lose any happiness, we possess some. Booth Tarkington

Happiness Long Lose Possess Some Any

Boyhood is the longest time in life for a boy. The last term of the school-year is made of decades, not of weeks, and living through them is like waiting for the millennium. Booth Tarkington

Life Time Waiting Made Living Through Weeks Longest Term Longest Time Like Boy Boyhood Decades Them Millennium Last

In view of the meaning given to this honor in the community to which I belong, I should abstain from the undeserved prize that has been awarded to me. Do not meet my voluntary refusal with ill will. Boris Pasternak

You fall into my arms. You are the good gift of destruction's path, When life sickens more than disease. And boldness is the root of beauty. Which draws us together. Boris Pasternak

Life Good You Together Gift Destruction Path Beauty Fall Draws More Arms Than Disease Which Us Root Boldness

Work is the order of the day, just as it was at one time, with our first starts and our best efforts. Do you remember? Therein lies its delight. It brings back the forgotten; one's stores of energy, seemingly exhausted, come back to life. Boris Pasternak

Life Work Time Best Day You Remember First Exhausted Energy Starts Back Our One Time Lies Seemingly Delight Come Efforts Just Forgotten Order Stores Therein Brings

I tend to do something for two years then move on to something new. Yoga, then biking, then weight lifting, then back to biking. The moment it feels like a rut, I switch and search for a new love. It's like having a midlife crisis, but without the new wife or cheesy BMW. Brad Meltzer

Love Wife Move On Back Crisis Something Having Rut Something New Tend Lifting Weight Feels New Like Cheesy Without New Love Years Yoga Move Then Biking Moment Search Switch Two

Ice cream is my vice. Brad Meltzer

Vice Ice Ice Cream Cream

Stories aren't the beauty of what did happen. They're the beauty of what could happen. Brad Meltzer

Beauty Could Did Happen Stories

On the day my daughter was born, I started writing a book for her. The plan was that, over the course of her life, I'd fill it with advice on how to be a strong woman. But along the way, I got caught up in the stories of Amelia Earhart, Sally Ride, and so many others. So how do you pick the best heroes for your kids? Brad Meltzer

Life Best Day You Woman Book Writing Ride Strong Heroes Daughter Advice Others Way Kids Born Strong Woman Pick Over Along Course Got How Caught Sally Up Stories Plan Your Many Fill Her Started

From the political angle, I'm trying to be apolitical if you will. I mean people say, 'Are you a red state or blue state?', I say, 'I'm purple.' I think there are great ideas on both sides of the aisle and neither side has cornered the market. Brad Thor

Great You People Political Will Think Cornered Side State Market Sides Say Aisle Neither Great Ideas People Say Angle Purple Both Both Sides Red Ideas Trying Blue Mean Mean People Apolitical

There are writers who go their whole lives and never hit that No. 1 spot. Brad Thor

Writers Never Spot Go Hit Who Whole Lives

After the Berlin Wall came down and Communism was on the run, I looked around and wondered what the next threat to the United States would be. Brad Thor

Communism Berlin Wall Down States Berlin Run Would Would-Be Threat Looked Around Came Wondered Wall After Next United United States

In some ways, it's better that Obama got elected than McCain. I'd rather be stabbed in the chest with an Obama steak knife than to have been slowly bled to death with McCain paper cuts. Say what you will, but Obama has brought about a patriotic and civic renaissance, the likes of which I have never seen. Brad Thor

Death You Better Will Seen Paper Say Ways Obama Civic Some Slowly Brought About Rather Steak Never Knife Bled Renaissance Likes Got Been Chest Than McCain Patriotic Which Cuts Elected

Someone putting down $25 of his or her hard-earned money to buy my product, then doing it again because they felt the payoff was worth it. That's as good as it gets for an author. Brad Thor

Buy Good Money Worth Down Worth It Someone Putting Because Felt Doing His Author Gets Again Then Product Payoff Her

I like books that have razor-sharp plotting that snaps and moves along. It's not about the main character being different at the end. I don't want my main character to be different in the end. I still want him committed to his ideas, to be steadfast, true and loyal. Brad Thor

Character Books Plotting Be Different Steadfast About Main Main Character True Along Like Ideas Him Still His Snaps End Committed Being Different Moves Want In The End Being Different Loyal

Less really is more. It's a tendency of beginning writers to want to prove what they're talking about by going too far with description. I think you've got to keep it short, crisp and clean. Brad Thor

Some of the best fan mail I get are from our men and women in the military and intelligence communities. They say, 'Boy you do your homework, this is exactly how we're doing it.' Brad Thor

Quotes by Novelists