Quotes by Novelists

Books are like movies of the mind and it's better to leave Kinsey where she is. Sue Grafton

Better Mind Books Kinsey Like She Leave Where Movies

Mining is a dangerous profession. There's no way to make a mine completely safe: These are the words owners have always used to excuse needless deaths and the words miners use to prepare for them. Tawni O'Dell

Words Dangerous Needless Mine Way Miners Mining Excuse Safe Make Always Deaths Owners Them Use Used Profession Prepare

If way to the better there be, it exacts a full look at the worst. Thomas Hardy

Better Way Worst Look Full

My opinion is that a poet should express the emotion of all the ages and the thought of his own. Thomas Hardy

Thought Poet Own Emotion Opinion His Ages Should Express

Loneliness is and always has been the central and inevitable experience of every man. Thomas Wolfe

Loneliness Man Experience Inevitable Every Has-Been Always Been Central Every Man

Man is a creature of hope and invention, both of which belie the idea that things cannot be changed. Tom Clancy

Hope Man Invention Changed Both Idea Cannot Which Creature Things

Show me an elitist, and I'll show you a loser. Tom Clancy

Me You Loser Show Elitist

Black literature is taught as sociology, as tolerance, not as a serious, rigorous art form. Toni Morrison

Art Black Tolerance Rigorous Art Form Taught Form Literature Serious Sociology

I wrote my first novel because I wanted to read it. Toni Morrison

First Wrote Read Because Wanted Novel

In becoming an American, from Europe, what one has in common with that other immigrant is contempt for me-it's nothing else but color. Toni Morrison

Nothing Other Else Immigrant Color Contempt Becoming American Common Europe

To me, the greatest pleasure of writing is not what it's about, but the inner music that words make. Truman Capote

Music Me Writing Words Pleasure About Make Greatest Greatest Pleasure Inner

An autobiography can distort; facts can be realigned. But fiction never lies: it reveals the writer totally. V. S. Naipaul

Distort Lies Totally Writer Facts Never Reveals Autobiography Fiction

Writers should provoke disagreement. V. S. Naipaul

Writers Disagreement Provoke Should

The evolution of sense is, in a sense, the evolution of nonsense. Vladimir Nabokov

Sense Evolution Nonsense

A writer should have the precision of a poet and the imagination of a scientist. Vladimir Nabokov

Poet Imagination Writer Scientist Precision Should

When you deal with a person who's experiencing dementia, you can see where they're struggling with knowledge. You can see what they forget completely, what they forget but they know what they once knew. You can tell how they're trying to remember. Walter Mosley

Knowledge You Remember Once Tell See Struggling Knew Dementia Know Deal How Person Forget Trying Where Experiencing

I would have been completely brainwashed by this lopsided and racist view of the world if it weren't for my father. He was a deep thinker and an irrepressible problem solver. He was a Black Socrates, asking why and then spoiling ready-made replies. Walter Mosley

Problem World Father Black Would Solver He Spoiling Ready-Made Were Been Brainwashed Then Asking View Deep Why Thinker Socrates

Discretion is the perfection of reason, and a guide to us in all the duties of life. Walter Scott

Life Guide Perfection Discretion Duties Us Reason

Quite frankly, I think political correctness is the worst form of censorship. You're not allowed to speak your mind unless you're black, or unless you're a terrorist, or unless you're an Arab or a minority people. Then you can say what you like. But if you are like a lot of us you are not supposed to say certain things. Wilbur Smith

You People Speak Political Censorship Mind Black Minority Think Unless Say Worst Arab Correctness Frankly Allowed Like Supposed Terrorist Political Correctness Lot Quite Quite Frankly Form Then Us Certain Your Certain Things Things

It's fun for me to try to write concise, compact things. It's a very good exercise for me. And I think it's important to try to do different things - change what I write about, and also the way I write. Otherwise, I'd just be repeating myself, which wouldn't be good for me or fair to my readers. William T. Vollmann

Myself Good Me Change Try Important Just Be Think Otherwise Way About Write Fair Also Readers Exercise Concise Repeating Very Just Different Which Compact Fun Different Things Good Exercise Things

A book is a fragile creature, it suffers the wear of time, it fears rodents, the elements and clumsy hands. so the librarian protects the books not only against mankind but also against nature and devotes his life to this war with the forces of oblivion. Umberto Eco

Life War Time Nature Book Fears Books Librarian Wear Only Oblivion Also Forces Protects His Rodents Hands Against Clumsy Mankind Creature Elements Suffers Fragile

Followers of the occult believe in only what they already know, and in those things that confirm what they have already learned. Umberto Eco

Believe Those Followers Only Know Learned Occult Confirm Things