1137 Novel Quotes for You to Enjoy

You never want to be in a position where your reader feels like you're passing judgment on your own characters. Any novel where you feel like the author is talking to the reader over the characters' heads is in a bad place. Jonathan Dee

I wrote my first novel in the same conditions as most first novelists - I had a full-time job, I shared an apartment, I had no time - and so I became a compulsive outliner of everything. Ever since then, my process has consisted of trying to forcibly rid myself of that compulsion. Jonathan Dee

Time Myself Job First Everything Compulsion Compulsive No Time Had Shared Since Most Wrote Became Conditions Trying Same Process Apartment Then Rid Full-Time Full-Time Job Novel Novelists Ever

I wrote a novel, Ghost Road Rules, and as soon as it was done and polished, I began reaching out to agents. I ignored the frequent advice to 'shoot low and try for a low-level agent because they're the only ones that will take a flyer on a new author.' That sounded like bad advice to me. Jonathan Maberry

Me Try Will Advice Flyer Ghost Rules Out Bad Only Take Road Soon New Like Reaching Wrote Because Polished Frequent Began Author Shoot Done Low Agent Agents Low-Level Ignored Novel

'Monday Mornings' is terrific. It's my wife's show. I'm just lucky enough that David Kelley threw me a bone on it as well. It's a wonderful piece based on a novel by Dr. Sanjay Gupta called 'Monday Mornings.' Jonathan Silverman

Me Wonderful Wife Monday Bone Enough Threw David Mornings Piece Well Terrific Just Show Lucky Novel Based Dr

Whether I'm writing a novel about a guy mourning the death of his father or whether I'm writing a show about people killing each other, you want to hear characters speak and be funny and witty. Jonathan Tropper

The novel is born of disillusionment; the poem, of despair. Jose Bergamin

Despair Born Poem Poetry Disillusionment Novel

I think the novel is not so much a literary genre, but a literary space, like a sea that is filled by many rivers. The novel receives streams of science, philosophy, poetry and contains all of these; it's not simply telling a story. Jose Saramago

No matter how daring or cautious you may choose to be, in the course of your life, you are bound to come into direct physical contact with what's known as Evil. I mean here not a property of the gothic novel but, to say the least, a palpable social reality that you in no way can control. Joseph Brodsky

Life You Property Reality Matter Evil Control Way Say Daring Physical Direct Contact Bound Come Known Course How Gothic Least Cautious May Mean Social Your Choose Novel Palpable Here

Of course there is no denying the possible pleasure of holing up with a fat, slow-moving, mediocre novel; still, we all know that we can indulge ourselves in that fashion only so much. In the end, we read not for reading's sake, but to learn. Joseph Brodsky

I started on the original comics from Stan Lee and all the artists and storytellers did from there, and I got to the graphic novel that Chris Clairmont did, which is the one Stryker comes from - 'God Loves, Man Kills', which is a brilliant story. Josh Helman

God Man Brilliant Got Comics Lee Did Artists Story Which Loves Storytellers Stan Graphic Original Novel Chris Started

My first job is to write a book that I believe is compelling and deserves the long sustained attention that any novel requires, and to worry about the commerce only late in the game. Joshua Ferris

TV does a thing that film can never do. It takes you to a place that no novel written after the late 19th century can. You can just go through people's lives; it's like a marriage. Joss Whedon

If a novel were written about Florida's administration of its healthcare for the working poor, an appropriate title might be: 'Don't get sick, and God help you if you do.' Joy Reid

God You Sick Appropriate Administration About Written Healthcare Were God Help Get Title Poor Might Working Help Novel Florida

Yes, 'Black Girl/White Girl' might be described as a 'coming-of-age' novel, at least for the survivor Genna. It is also intended as a comment on race relations in America more generally: we are 'roommates' with one another, but how well do we know one another? Joyce Carol Oates

'The Accursed' is very much a novel about social injustice as the consequence of the terrible, tragic division of classes - the exploitation not only of poor and immigrant workers but of their young children in factories and mills - and as the consequence of race hatred in the aftermath of the Civil War and the freeing of the slaves. Joyce Carol Oates

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As a teacher at Princeton, I'm surrounded by people who work hard so I just make good use of my time. And I don't really think of it as work - writing a novel, in one sense, is a problem-solving exercise. Joyce Carol Oates

Before you can write a novel you have to have a number of ideas that come together. One idea is not enough. Joyce Carol Oates

You Together Before Enough Write Idea Come Ideas Novel Number

Writers are notoriously unable to know about themselves. Faulkner thought 'The Fable' was his best novel. F. Scott Fitzgerald liked 'Tender Is the Night,' an experimental novel. Joyce Carol Oates

Best Thought Faulkner Unable Fable About Tender Writers Know Liked His Fitzgerald Scott Experimental Themselves Novel Night

'We Were the Mulvaneys' is perhaps the novel closest to my heart. I think of it as a valentine to a passing way of American life, and to my own particular child - and girlhood in upstate New York. Everyone in the novel is enormously close to me, including Marianne's cat, Muffin, who was in fact my own cat. Joyce Carol Oates

Life Me Heart Own Think Valentine Everyone Way My Own Fact Cat New Particular Perhaps Passing Were Close Child American York Closest New York In Fact Upstate Upstate New York American Life Muffin Who Novel Including

I don't feel I write fast. I write in longhand and do so much revision. On the page, it's so old-fashioned. I could write a whole novel on scrap paper, scribbles and things. I keep looking at it and something develops. For me, using a word processor would mean staring at a screen for too many hours. Joyce Carol Oates

Me Word Looking Too Paper Would Something Could Write Feel Develops Longhand Hours Revision Scrap Screen Mean Much Page Old-Fashioned Many Using Whole Novel Keep Fast Staring Things

To write a novel is to embark on a quest that is very romantic. People have visions, and the next step is to execute them. That's a very romantic project. Like Edvard Munch's strange dreamlike canvases where people are stylized, like 'The Scream.' Munch must have had that vision in a dream, he never saw it. Joyce Carol Oates

Strange People Vision Project Saw Embark Visions Dream Must Write Never Had He Step Like Execute Stylized Quest Very Scream Where Romantic Them Next Next Step Novel

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