9374 quotes by novelists for you to enjoy

Rejection is the one constant of human experience. Howard Jacobson

Experience Rejection Constant Human Human Experience

Words should have the power to inform and to move, not the power to send people scurrying away. But if you attach that much emotional energy to a word, it gives people the power to hurt each other. Irvine Welsh

You Hurt People Words Word Power Energy Other Attach Gives Emotional Send Move Inform Much Should Each Away

There is great treasure there behind our skull and this is true about all of us. This little treasure has great, great powers, and I would say we only have learnt a very, very small part of what it can do. Isaac Bashevis Singer

Great Our Say Would About Only Small Small Part Part True Powers Learnt Very Behind Little Us Skull Treasure

I read as much poetry as time allows and circumstance dictates: No heartache can pass without a little Dorothy Parker, no thunderstorm without W. H. Auden, no sleepless night without W. B. Yeats. J. Courtney Sullivan

Time Sleepless Circumstance Poetry Parker Thunderstorm Read Without Pass Yeats Heartache Dictates Dorothy Little Much Night

I was about half in love with her by the time we sat down. That's the thing about girls. Every time they do something pretty... you fall half in love with them, and then you never know where the hell you are. J. D. Salinger

It may be the part of a friend to rebuke a friend's folly. J. R. R. Tolkien

Folly Part Friend May Rebuke

I write for no other purpose than to add to the beauty that now belongs to me. I write a book for no other reason than to add three or four hundred acres to my magnificent estate. Jack London

Me Book Three Beauty Add Other Hundred Magnificent Purpose Write Than Estate Acres Reason Now Four Belongs

Affluence means influence. Jack London

Affluence Influence Means

There is a 'sanctity' involved with bringing a child into this world: it is better than bombing one out of it. James Baldwin

World Better Sanctity Out Involved Than Child Bombing Bringing

An atheist is a man who has no invisible means of support. James Buchan

Man Atheist Support Invisible Means Who

There is so much inherent drama in the matter of change. Disappointment in yourself and others, coping with the fact that life is essentially shipwreck, becoming a person you yourself could not imagine yourself to be, for good and for bad, and then ultimately there is the basic matter of loss. Jane Hamilton

Life Good You Change Disappointment Yourself Matter Drama Others Bad Fact Could Becoming Loss Ultimately Shipwreck Person Essentially Then Much Inherent Basic Coping Imagine

We writers are shy, nocturnal creatures. Push us into the light and the light blinds us. John Banville

Light Writers Push Nocturnal Blinds Us Creatures Shy

I'm full of self-doubt. I doubt everything I do. Everything I do is a failure. John Banville

Failure Doubt Everything Self-Doubt Full

More history is made by secret handshakes than by battles, bills and proclamations. John Barth

History Made Secret Battles More Than Bills

Friendships, like marriages, are dependent on avoiding the unforgivable. John D. MacDonald

Marriages Like Friendships Dependent Avoiding

The mind cannot support moral chaos for long. Men are under as strong a compulsion to invent an ethical setting for their behavior as spiders are to weave themselves webs. John Dos Passos

Strong Behavior Mind Men Long Invent Setting Chaos Spiders Moral Weave Web Compulsion Support Cannot Themselves Ethical

To be a human being is to be in a state of tension between your appetites and your dreams, and the social realities around you and your obligations to your fellow man. John Updike

Dreams You Man Obligations Human Being State Tension Between Fellow Fellow Man Around Human Being Realities Social Your Your Dreams Appetites

Any activity becomes creative when the doer cares about doing it right or better. John Updike

Creative Better Cares About Doer Becomes Doing Any Activity Right

Quotes by Novelists