9376 quotes by novelists for you to enjoy

No theory is good unless it permits, not rest, but the greatest work. No theory is good except on condition that one use it to go on beyond. Andre Gide

Work Good Rest Unless Except Beyond Greatest Permits Go Condition Use Theory

The most important things to say are those which often I did not think necessary for me to say - because they were too obvious. Andre Gide

Me Important Important Things Think Too Say Those Most Obvious Because Were Did Often The Most Important Which Things Necessary

It is not always by plugging away at a difficulty and sticking to it that one overcomes it; often it is by working on the one next to it. Some things and some people have to be approached obliquely, at an angle. Andre Gide

People Some People Difficulty Plugging Some Some Things Angle Overcomes Sticking Always Often Next Working Away Things

Old hands soil, it seems, whatever they caress, but they too have their beauty when they are joined in prayer. Young hands were made for caresses and the sheathing of love. It is a pity to make them join too soon. Andre Gide

Love Prayer Old Soil Made Beauty Whatever Young Too Caress Seems Join Joined Soon Make Were Hands Pity Them

To what a degree the same past can leave different marks - and especially admit of different interpretations. Andre Gide

Degree Past Marks Admit Leave Same Different Interpretations

Sin is whatever obscures the soul. Andre Gide

Soul Whatever Sin

Work and struggle and never accept an evil that you can change. Andre Gide

Work You Change Struggle Evil Never Accept

The cure until the late 1940s, when there was an antibiotic discovered for tuberculosis, was basically rest. It was fresh, cold air, lots of food - five meals a day, lots of sleep, not very much talking, and for some people, complete stillness. Andrea Barrett

Food Day People Stillness Rest Some People Cold Late Complete Air Some Until Talking Fresh Discovered Lots Very Five Cure Tuberculosis Meals Much Basically Sleep

By junior high, I was a horrible student. But during my sophomore year of high school, I did have a fabulous English teacher, and I would go to school just for her class and then skip out afterwards. That's actually when I started writing, although I didn't think of it then as something I might someday do. Andrea Barrett

Teacher Class Writing School Year Think Out High Would Fabulous High School Horrible Someday Something Student Sophomore Sophomore Year Although Go Junior Junior High Did Just Afterwards Might Then Skip English English Teacher Her Actually Started

My mother was largely a housewife until she and my father were divorced. No one in the family read for pleasure - it was a very unintellectual household - but my mother did read to us when we were little, and that's how I started to read. Andrea Barrett

Family Mother Father Pleasure No-One Divorced Until She Household Read Housewife How Were Very Did Little Us Largely Started

I read a lot, very passionately, from the time I was very young, but it was a constant battle; my mother would more or less let me be, but with my father, I was always searching for a place where he wouldn't find me. Whenever he saw me reading, he would tell me to put the book down and go outside, act like a normal person. Andrea Barrett

Time Me Book Battle Mother Father Reading Young Down Saw Tell Would Find Constant More More Or Less Outside He Put Like Read Always Go Passionately Normal Lot Normal Person Very Person Whenever Where Place Act Less Searching

The thing I'm particularly interested in is natural history. In its heyday, the mid- and late-nineteenth century, when people were going out and gathering the first huge caches of data and trying to understand what was living and growing everywhere, there was such a sense of freshness to that pursuit. It's very exciting. Andrea Barrett

History Natural People First Sense Living Gathering Everywhere Heyday Out Data Pursuit Exciting Particularly Understand Freshness Were Huge Very Trying Going Mid Interested Natural History Century Growing Thing

I am, as are most writers, just hugely obsessive, and so are many of my closest friends, who tend to be writers or scientists. It's a trait of human nature that I'm particularly in touch with. So I tend to project it onto my characters. Andrea Barrett

I've never been to a black-tie thing in my life. I didn't even go to my prom. Andrea Barrett

Life My Life Prom Never Go Been Even Thing

There's actually nothing interesting about me except what I write. Andrea Barrett

Me Nothing About Except Write Interesting Actually

I've always written about people who have very abstracted in a certain way. I write about scientists and artists and musicians. I write about people who live in their heads who are very obsessed about a certain set of details in the physical world. Andrea Barrett

In the story I eventually called 'Archangel' and published in 2008, Eudora MacEachern, working as an assistant to a surgeon at a hospital in Archangel, one night finds outside the gates an exhausted and frostbitten soldier crouched over the reins of a pony sleigh carrying the body of another soldier. Andrea Barrett

The second book was probably the result of the relationship I was in at the time. We were only going to be compatible for a minute, and I think we both knew it. It's like how you can be a different person on vacation, but you know all along you're just visiting that mindset. Andrea Seigel

Time Relationship You Book Result Think Mindset Visiting Minute Only Both Knew Along Like Know How Were Person Going Just Different Different Person Compatible Second Vacation

I've dreamed of having my French bulldog become a bestselling children's heroine. Andrea Seigel

Become Heroine Dreamed Having French Bulldog Children

I do not believe that I will ever write an adult novel from an animal's point of view unless someday it becomes suddenly appealing to me to make a narrator a mentally ill pet. Never say never. Andrea Seigel

Me Animal Pet Will Never Say Never Believe Unless Say Someday Mentally Point Point Of View Write Adult Never Make Becomes Narrator View Ill Appealing Novel Suddenly Ever

Ultimately, criticism that 'The Real World' has devolved into a lesser enterprise comes from the viewers who came of age alongside it, not the teens of the moment that MTV has always existed for. Andrea Seigel

Age World Criticism Teens Enterprise Alongside Devolved Always Real Came Existed Ultimately The Real World Real World Viewers Moment Who Lesser

My feeling for reality TV isn't ironic, guilty, or apologetic. Reality TV is one of the few remaining modes of popular entertainment in which characterization is permitted as plot. Andrea Seigel

Entertainment Reality Feeling Few Guilty Characterization Plot TV Remaining Permitted Ironic Which Modes Reality TV Apologetic Popular

Quotes by Novelists