1137 Novel Quotes for You to Enjoy

My second novel began after my family moved from New York City to North Carolina, and I watched my son walk into kindergarten at a school in which he was the only Jewish child out of 600 students - and this in the middle of the Bible Belt. Karen Bender

Family Bible Son School Walk Carolina Out Kindergarten City Only Students He New Began North Child North Carolina York Moved New York Middle New York City After Which Novel Second Watched Belt Jewish

A novel can do something that films and TV usually can't - a glimpse inside the characters' heads. I write very tight third person point of view, so the reader is right behind the eyes of each character, seeing what they see and feeling what they feel. Karen Traviss

Character Eyes Feeling Films Characters TV Inside See Seeing Something Point Point Of View Write Feel Glimpse Heads Reader Tight Very Person Behind View Novel Each Right Third

I use the setting of a small rural Norwegian community - the kind of place that I know so intimately. I could never write a novel set in a big city, because, frankly, I don't know what it would be like. Karin Fossum

You can take risks with the characters and their development in a standalone novel. Karin Slaughter

You Risks Characters Take Development Novel

When you use the form of a novel, and you say 'I,' you are also saying 'I' for someone else. When you say 'you,' you are simultaneously in your room writing and in the outside world - you are seeing and being seen seeing, and this creates something slightly strange and foreign in the self. Karl Ove Knausgard

Saying You Strange Writing World Seen Else Say Slightly Seeing Someone Something Outside Self Outside World Simultaneously Also Foreign Being Form Room Creates Use Your Novel

Everyone said, 'Well, you're very old for a first novel,' and I said, 'How do you write when you haven't lived? How do you write when you have no experience? How do you write straight out of university?' Kate Atkinson

You Experience Old First Everyone Out No Experience Write Well Said How Very Straight Novel Lived University

I had a novel in the back of my mind when I won an Ian St James story competition in 1993. At the award ceremony an agent asked me if I was writing a novel. I showed her four or five chapters of what would become 'Behind the Scenes at the Museum' and to my surprise she auctioned them off. Kate Atkinson

Me Writing Competition Mind Become Back Chapters Would Scenes Had She Surprise Off Won Five Behind James Story Them Agent Asked Ceremony Novel Award Her Four Museum

I feel like my brain is more geared towards a novel than it is to a movie. Kate Beckinsale

Geared More Feel Towards Like Brain Than Movie Novel

My first novel, 'In the Drink,' begun when I was 29 and floundering and published when I was 36 and married, was about a 29-year-old woman whose life was even more screwed up than my own had been. Kate Christensen

Finding my way into a novel is always half the battle. Kate Christensen

Battle Half Way Finding Always Novel

My lip curls in a snide reflex whenever I hear that a new novel is written from the point of view of a child or a monster, a lunatic or an animal. I immediately expect a nasty coyness of tone, cheesy artifice, the world through cardboard 3-D lenses. Katherine Dunn

Animal World Monster Immediately Point Point Of View Through Written New Cheesy Nasty Hear Reflex Expect Lip Child Artifice Curls Whenever Lenses View Novel Cardboard Lunatic Tone

I had tried writing novels for many years, and they always escaped me. For a long time, I thought, 'It's just not in me to write a novel. It's not something I'm able to do.' It seemed like everything I wrote naturally ended at the bottom of page three. A picture book, three pages; an essay, three pages. Kathi Appelt

Time Me Book Writing Thought Three Long Long Time Picture Everything Tried Able Seemed Something Write Had Bottom Picture Book Like Wrote Always Years Escaped Ended Essay Just Page Pages Naturally Many Novel Novels

Like the protagonist of her 2006 novel, 'Love and Other Impossible Pursuits,' Ayelet Waldman is a Jewish redhead who attended Harvard Law School and is madly in love with her husband. But the obvious similarities end there. Katie Hafner

Working on my first novel, 'Groundswell' - about a woman recovering from a bad breakup who falls in love with surfing - I spent a month south of the border. And when I wasn't writing or surfing, I was eating. A lot. Katie Lee

Love Woman Writing First Month Spent Bad Border Eating About Recovering Surfing Falls South Lot Breakup Working Who Novel

I really want to write another novel, and I am trying to come up with what the story will be. As I learned with 'Groundswell,' I can't force it; I just have to wait for it to come to me. Katie Lee

Me Wait Will Write Come Force Learned Another Am Up Trying Just Want Story Really Novel

When a place comes across vividly in a novel, it's often compared to a character. I can remember writing teachers who encouraged me to treat setting as if it were a character, to give it three dimensions, to make it come alive, jump off the page. Kaui Hart Hemmings

Character Me Writing Treat Remember Three Setting Alive Dimensions Vividly Give Come Make Were Encouraged Off Jump Often Place Across Page Teachers Who Novel Compared

I wasn't creative enough to imagine my first novel becoming a film directed by Alexander Payne. Nor did I consider the possibility of seeing Hollywood stars moving through my personal version of Hanalei town: going to Tahiti Nui, rehearsing a scene in front of my cousin's cottages, driving the snaky roads. Kaui Hart Hemmings

Creative First Stars Alexander Enough Consider Possibility Seeing Directed Scene Through Driving Roads Town Becoming Cousin Nor Version Did Personal Front Going Moving Hollywood Rehearsing Novel Film Imagine

I'm always trying to make something that is impossible to film. Why would somebody just read a novel when they can see it on TV or in the cinema? I really have to think of the things fiction can do that film can't and play to the strengths of the novel. With a novel, you can get right inside somebody's head. Kazuo Ishiguro

You Cinema Impossible Somebody Think TV Would Inside See Something Head Make Read Always Get Trying Just Fiction Really Novel Film Why Play Right Things Strengths

When I write a novel, I want it to be completely different from a screenplay. I'm very conscious of the difference, and I want novels to work purely as novels. Otherwise I don't see how they'll survive - why don't we just all go to the movies or watch television. Kazuo Ishiguro

It's hard to make a living as a novelist. My first novel 'Tapping the Source' made quite a splash in Hollywood, and people started asking if I wanted to write scripts. I quickly realized I could make a lot more money that way. Kem Nunn

People Money Made First Living Way More Could Splash Write Make Source Lot Tapping Quickly Quite Wanted Scripts Hollywood Realized Asking Hard Novel Novelist Started

I wrote 'Airborn' after completing three books about bats. I loved my bats, but what a treat it was to write about humans again. They could eat food other than midges and mosquitoes, they wore clothing, they slept in beds - all this struck me as wonderfully novel. Kenneth Oppel

Food Me Treat Three Other Slept Books Bats Completing Eat About Struck Could Write Wrote Beds Than Wonderfully Clothing After Loved Again Wore Novel Humans

A novel is a static thing that one moves through; a play is a dynamic thing that moves past one. Kenneth Tynan

Past Static Through Moves Dynamic Novel Play Thing

I have survived by representing these sufferings of mine in the form of the novel. Kenzaburo Oe

Mine Survived Representing Form Novel Sufferings

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