1137 Novel Quotes for You to Enjoy

How often one reads a contemporary full-length novel and thinks quietly, mutinously, that it would have worked out better at half or a third the length. Ian Mcewan

Better Half Out Would Contemporary Reads How Quietly Often Length Worked Novel Thinks Third

The end of secrecy would be the end of the novel - especially the English novel. The English novel requires social secrecy, personal secrecy. Ian Mcewan

Secrecy Would Would-Be End Personal Social Requires English Novel

I took the first James Kelman novel, 'The Bus Conductor Hines', home to my dad. I thought, 'My dad will like this; it's written in Scots.' But my dad said: 'I can't read that.' He was reading James Bond and John le Carre. That was part of what attracted me to crime - the idea of getting a wide audience. Ian Rankin

Home Me Crime Will Thought First Reading Took John He Part Written Idea Like Attracted Read Audience Said Conductor Getting James James Bond Bus Novel Dad Wide Bond

The most difficult part of any crime novel is the plotting. It all begins simply enough, but soon you're dealing with a multitude of linked characters, strands, themes and red herrings - and you need to try to control these unruly elements and weave them into a pattern. Ian Rankin

You Try Crime Control Difficult Enough Characters Plotting Weave Unruly Part Simply Red Soon Most Dealing Linked Begins Any Pattern Them Themes Novel Elements Multitude Need

When I'm writing, I won't know whodunnit until maybe two thirds of the way through. Until then, I know as little as my detective. I just make it up as I go along. It's nerve-wracking, actually. You'll be half through and not know your conclusion. You worry one of these days the ending won't come. I'll be left with only two-thirds of a novel. Ian Rankin

You Writing Ending Half Worry Way Detective Only Through Along Days Come Know Until Make Conclusion Go Left Up Maybe Just Little Then Your Novel Actually Two Two-Thirds

It's like that Simpsons joke - they're filming a cow in a movie and they go, 'OK, we'll tape a bunch of cats together to make a cow', and it's like, 'Why don't you just use a cow?'. For some reason that is novel - like, 'Oh, my guitar sounds like a piano and now if I can just get my piano to sound like my guitar'. Ian Williams

You Together Cats Guitar Joke OK Some Piano Simpsons Like Make Sound Sounds Go Tape Cow Bunch Get Oh Just Movie Use Reason Novel Now Why Filming

How many different works of art have been inspired by 'Don Quixote?' Thousands. Most people enter the novel, for better or worse, through the musical the 'Man Of La Mancha.' Ilan Stavans

A good autobiography is like a document: a mirror of the age on which people can 'depend.' In a novel, by contrast, it's not the facts that matter, but precisely what you add to the facts. Imre Kertesz

Good You Age People Matter Mirror Depend Add Facts Like Document Contrast Precisely Autobiography Which Novel

When we write about Auschwitz, we must know that Auschwitz, in a certain sense at least, suspended literature. One can only write a black novel about Auschwitz or - you should excuse the expression - a cheap serial, which begins in Auschwitz and is still not over. Imre Kertesz

You Black Sense Must About Only Write Cheap Over Excuse Know Least Still Auschwitz Begins Suspended Literature Which Certain Should Serial Novel Expression

A book is either autobiography or a novel. Imre Kertesz

Book Autobiography Either Novel

I may attempt a novel. I think that no matter what you write, it requires being honest with oneself, and you have to pull yourself out of the whirlwind of daily life. Iris Chang

Life Daily You Yourself Matter Think Out Oneself Write Attempt May Being Being Honest Whirlwind Requires Novel Daily Life Honest Pull

I'm a compulsive reader of fiction. I fell in love with novels when I was a teenager. My wife Marilyn and I... our initial friendship began because we are both readers. I've gone to sleep almost every night of my life after having read in a novel for 30 or 40 minutes. I'm a great reader of fiction and much less so of non-fiction. Irvin D. Yalom

Life Love Friendship Great Wife My Life Gone Every Teenager Our Minutes Having Both Compulsive Almost Fell Read Reader Non-Fiction Readers Because Began Fiction After Much Less Initial Novel Novels Every Night Night Marilyn Sleep

The biographical novel is a true and documented story of one human being's journey across the face of the years, transmuted from the raw material of life into the delight and purity of an authentic art form. Irving Stone

In the biographical novel, there's only one person involved. I, the author, spend two to five years becoming the main character. I do that so by the time you get to the bottom of Page 2 or 3, you forget your name, where you live, your profession and the year it is. You become the main character of the book. You live the book. Irving Stone

Time Character You Book Become Year Live Spend Only Main Main Character Bottom Name Involved Becoming Years Five Author Person Forget Get Where Page Your Profession Novel Two By The Time

In a novel, it's hard to keep track of everybody. Irwin Shaw

Everybody Track Hard Novel Keep

I cringe when critics say I'm a master of the popular novel. What's an unpopular novel? Irwin Shaw

Master Say Cringe Critics Unpopular Popular Novel

How much energy is wasted in Italy in trying to write the novel that obeys all the rules. The energy might have been useful to provide us with more modest, more genuine things, that had less pretensions: short stories, memoirs, notes, testimonials, or at any rate, books that are open, without a preconceived plan. Italo Calvino

Energy Books Rules Memoirs Rate More Write Open Had Without Genuine How How Much Testimonial Been Provide Italy Trying Any Preconceived Short Stories Short Stories Might Modest Notes Plan Us Much Useful Less Novel Wasted Things

Now you mustn't think that I don't have any ideas for novels in my head. I've got ideas for ten novels in my head. But with every idea I have, I already foresee the wrong novels I would write, because I also have critical ideas in my head; I've got a full theory of the perfect novel, and that's what stumps me. Italo Calvino

If a traditional publisher offered me a quarter of a million dollars for a novel, I'd consider it. But anything less than that, I'm sure I can do better on my own. J. A. Konrath

Me Better Own Consider My Own Sure Quarter Traditional Dollars Offered Than Anything Less Novel Publisher Million Million Dollars

Writing a novel is one of those modern rites of passage, I think, that lead us from an innocent world of contentment, drunkenness, and good humor, to a state of chronic edginess and the perpetual scanning of bank statements. J. G. Ballard

I don't think any particular painters have inspired me, except in a general sense. It was more a matter of corroboration. The visual arts, from Manet onwards, seemed far more open to change and experiment than the novel, though that's only partly the fault of the writers. There's something about the novel that resists innovation. J. G. Ballard

Me Change Innovation Fault Matter Sense Experiment Think Though Visual Visual Arts About Seemed Something General More Only Except General Sense Inspired Writers Open Particular Partly Than Any Arts Far Painters Novel

At the school I attended, the clergyman who ran the cathedral school in Shanghai would give lines to the boys as a punishment. They expected you to copy out, say, 20 or 30 pages from one of the school texts. But I found that rather than laboriously copying out something from a novel by Charles Dickens, it was easier if I made it up myself. J. G. Ballard

Myself You School Made Ran Say Easier Punishment Out Would Charles Charles Dickens Give Something Rather Shanghai Attended Clergyman Cathedral Boy Lines Dickens Up Texts Than Expected Pages Who Novel Found Copy Copying

I started a novel in the back of a notebook, and it was great because it looked like I was taking notes. And I just, I kept it up, it was sort of fantasy, it was part soap opera. It was utterly dreadful, but that's how I got hooked. Jacqueline Carey

Great Back Hooked Dreadful Part Taking Like Looked Opera Sort Because Got How Up Just Soap Soap Opera Notebook Notes Fantasy Novel Utterly Started Kept

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