28 Literary Fiction Quotes for You to Enjoy

I'm very keenly aware that there aren't very many women writing literary fiction in Ireland and so that gives me a sense that what I say matters, in some small way. Anne Enright

Me Women Writing Matters Sense Way Say Some Small Gives Ireland Very Fiction Literary Literary Fiction Many Aware

I love developing children as characters. Children rarely have important roles in literary fiction - they are usually defined as cute or precious, or they create a plot by being kidnapped or dying. Barbara Kingsolver

Love Important Cute Defined Kidnapped Plot Characters Rarely Developing Important Roles Precious Roles Being Children Fiction Dying Literary Literary Fiction Create

Literary fiction - if we must use the term - is not the plotless, meandering indulgence that its detractors would have you believe. Dave Morris

You Believe Must Would Term Indulgence Fiction Literary Literary Fiction Use

Literary fiction, as a strict genre, is all but dead. Meanwhile, most genres flourish. Dean Koontz

Strict Most Dead Genre Genres Fiction Literary Literary Fiction Meanwhile Flourish

Before my book, 'California,' came out, I had modest hopes for it. Or, let's put it this way - I had the same hopes that every literary fiction writer in America has: I wanted the novel to be well-received, critically. As for sales? I didn't want it to disappoint, but I didn't expect it to be a best-seller, either. Edan Lepucki

Book Before Every Way Out Critically Hopes Best-Seller Writer Had Put Disappoint California Came Sales Expect America Same Want Fiction Wanted Fiction Writer Literary Literary Fiction Either Modest Novel

Yes - 90% of fantasy is crap. And so is 90% of science fiction and 90% of mystery fiction and 90% of literary fiction. George R. R. Martin

Science Mystery Science Fiction Yes Fiction Crap Literary Literary Fiction Fantasy

I don't write literary fiction - I write books that are entertaining, but are also, I hope, well-constructed and thoughtful and funny and have things to say about men and women and families and children and life in America today. Jennifer Weiner

I think suspense should be like any other color on a writer's palette. I suppose I'm in the minority but I think it's crazy for 'literary fiction' to divorce itself from stories that are suspenseful, and assign anything with cops or spies or criminals to some genre ghetto. Jess Walter

Crazy Minority Think Other Criminals Ghetto Spies Some Color Writer Divorce Suppose Like Genre Itself Any Suspense Suspenseful Fiction Literary Stories Anything Literary Fiction Should Assign Palette Cops

Many Scandinavian writers who had made their name in literary fiction felt they wanted to have a go at the crime novel to show they could compete with the best. If Salman Rushdie had been Norwegian, he would definitely have written at least one thriller. Jo Nesbo

Best Crime Made Definitely At Least One Scandinavian Would Thriller Could Writers Had He Written Name Felt Least Go Been Norwegian Fiction Wanted Literary Literary Fiction Show Who Many Novel Compete

A lot of young-adult authors, great ones, have tried their hands at literary fiction, and not a lot of them have succeeded. Not even Roald Dahl could switch-hit, and not for lack of trying. Lev Grossman

Great Tried Great Ones Could Lot Trying Hands Authors Lack Fiction Literary Literary Fiction Them Succeeded Even

At 20, 25, 30, we begin to realise that the possibilities of escape are getting fewer. We have jobs, children, partners, debts. This is the part of us to which literary fiction speaks. Mark Haddon

Possibilities Jobs Part Partners Begin Debts Escape Fewer Getting Children Fiction Literary Literary Fiction Realise Which Us Speaks

In writing literary fiction, you are trying to help yourself. And readers are going to literary fiction not just to be entertained, but because they feel something else will happen; that the experience will take them beyond themselves and show them something they haven't seen before. Mohsin Hamid

You Experience Yourself Writing Will Seen Before Else Entertained Something Something Else Take Feel Beyond Readers Because Trying Going Just Fiction Happen Literary Literary Fiction Them Themselves Show Help

In general, fiction is divided into 'literary fiction' and 'commercial fiction.' Nobody can definitively say what separates one from the other, but that doesn't stop everybody (including me) from trying. Your book probably will be perceived as one or the other, and that will affect how it is read, packaged and marketed. Nancy Kress

Me Book Will Other Everybody Say Perceived General Divided Nobody Read How Affect Commercial Trying Stop Fiction Literary Literary Fiction Packaged Separates Your Including

I think speculative fiction has fewer unspoken prerequisites than literary fiction for writers of color. Nnedi Okorafor

Think Color Writers Unspoken Than Fewer Fiction Literary Literary Fiction Speculative

With literary fiction, generally a film maker falls in love with a book. In commercial fiction, it's a producer or studio falling in love with a book they can make into a movie with worldwide appeal. Robert Gottlieb

Love Book Worldwide Generally Studio Make Maker Falling Falling In Love Falls Commercial Fiction Movie Literary Literary Fiction Producer Appeal Film

I've always read broadly: literary fiction, sci-fi, fantasy, chick lit, historical, dystopian, nonfiction, memoir. I've even read Westerns. I prefer female protagonists. Sandra Cisneros

Memoir Protagonists Read Sci-Fi Female Always Nonfiction Historical Chick Westerns Lit Fiction Literary Literary Fiction Dystopian Prefer Fantasy Even

It seems to me that one of the things that happened with a lot of literary fiction in the 1980s and 1990s was that it became very concerned with the academy and less with how people live their lives. We got to a point where the crime novel stepped into the breach. It was also a time when the crime novel stopped being so metropolitan. Val McDermid

Time Me People Crime Live One Of The Things Seems Point Stepped Academy Also Concerned Became Got How Lot Metropolitan Very Stopped Being Where Breach Fiction Literary Happened Literary Fiction Less Novel Lives Things

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