9375 quotes by novelists for you to enjoy

Truth isn't always beauty, but the hunger for it is. Nadine Gordimer

Truth Beauty Hunger Always

I cannot live with someone who can't live without me. Nadine Gordimer

Me Live Someone Without Cannot Who

I was suffering from a peculiar and persistent sense that I was being pursued, and also the conviction that under the political order of the times, our lives had no meaning. Naguib Mahfouz

Suffering Political Sense Conviction Our Our Lives Pursued Had Also Times Persistent Being Order Meaning Lives Peculiar

The writer interweaves a story with his own doubts, questions, and values. That is art. Naguib Mahfouz

Art Values Own Writer His Questions Story Doubts

The politics of fear are always the same. They are easily recognisable in retrospect. They are easy to acquiesce in at the time. Naomi Alderman

Politics Time Fear Recognisable Easily Easy Retrospect Always Same Acquiesce

I think whenever you love something or somebody it means that you have to extend yourself, you have to grow - get a little larger. You can't stay in your little comfortable - spot. Naomi Shihab Nye

Love You Yourself Somebody Think Stay Something Comfortable Spot Get Whenever Little Means Your Grow Larger Extend

You know, those of us who leave our homes in the morning and expect to find them there when we go back - it's hard for us to understand what the experience of a refugee might be like. Naomi Shihab Nye

The American middle class's faith in personal comfort as an end in itself is, in essence, a denial of life. And it has been imposed upon American writers and playwrights strongly enough to cut them off from their deeper sources. Nelson Algren

Life Faith Class Denial Playwrights Enough Has-Been Strongly Writers Comfort Imposed Been Sources Off End Itself American Personal Essence Middle Them Cut American Writers Deeper

New York is the place where they bind books and write blurbs and arrange the publicity and print the galleys... But Chicago is the place where the book is lived out before it is bound and the song is sung before it is recorded. Nelson Algren

Peace is not a state - it is a choice, and you have to remake it every day. It's possible to get a sort of stability, a habit of peace, but it's like an egg balanced, spinning, on its point: lose your momentum, and your equilibrium is gone, too. Nick Harkaway

Day You Peace Every Day Lose Gone Every Too State Possible Spinning Habit Point Remake Like Balanced Sort Equilibrium Get Egg Stability Choice Your Momentum

It's not the sentiments of men which make history but their actions. Norman Mailer

History Men Make Which Sentiments Actions

When I read it, I don't wince, which is all I ever ask for a book I write. Norman Mailer

Book Wince Write Read Which Ask Ever

Writing books is the closest men ever come to childbearing. Norman Mailer

Writing Men Books Come Closest Ever

In America few people will trust you unless you are irreverent. Norman Mailer

You Trust People Will Few Unless America Few People Irreverent

What characterizes a member of a minority group is that he is forced to see himself as both exceptional and insignificant, marvelous and awful, good and evil. Norman Mailer

Good Good And Evil Evil Minority Group Member Minority Group See Insignificant Both Marvelous Exceptional He Forced Himself Awful

One side of me is very busy paying attention to the details of life, the humanity of people, catching the street voices, the middle-class, upper-middle-class secret lives of Turks. The other side is interested in history and class and gender, trying to get all of society in a very realistic way. Orhan Pamuk

Life Me History Class Humanity People Gender Realistic Busy Society Other Side Secret Way Details Voices Attention Catching Very Get Trying Interested Turks Paying Lives Street

I believe in a world where there are no heroes, and I've read and know humanity a lot. There are moments that I admire in a person courage, intellect, hard work. These are the qualities I admire in an intellectual, in a writer, and there are so many people who have these things. Orhan Pamuk

Work Hard Work Courage Humanity People World Heroes Believe Admire Writer Know Qualities Read Intellect Intellectual Lot Person So Many People Where Hard Who Many Moments Things

Let us say in the pocket of one of my old coats I find a movie ticket from many years ago. Once I see the ticket, not only do I remember that I saw this movie, but also scenes from this movie, which I think I have entirely forgotten, come back to me. Objects have this power, and I like it. Orhan Pamuk

Me Remember Old Power Think Back Once Saw Say Find See Pocket Entirely Objects Only Scenes Come Like Ticket Also Years Years Ago Forgotten Movie Which Us Coats Many Let Us

In 1930s mysteries, all sorts of motives were credible which aren't credible today, especially motives of preventing guilty sexual secrets from coming out. Nowadays, people sell their guilty sexual secrets. P. D. James

Today People Mysteries Nowadays Secrets Guilty Out Sexual Preventing Sort Coming Were Motives Sell Which Credible

The French Revolution actualised the Enlightenment's greatest intellectual breakthrough: detaching the political from the theocratic. Pankaj Mishra

Political Revolution French French Revolution Greatest Intellectual Breakthrough Enlightenment

I think the presence of caste in India, how the villages are geographically structured on caste lines, is very different from China. The presence of an egalitarian culture is striking in a Chinese village. Pankaj Mishra

Culture Think Striking India Structured Caste How Lines Very Egalitarian Different China Chinese Village Villages Presence

I only know it takes weeks to recover, as if one had been in a car accident. Patricia Highsmith

Car Accident Only Recover Weeks Had Takes Know Been Car Accident

Quotes by Novelists