1137 Novel Quotes for You to Enjoy

One of the things I've been most excited by is U.S. television drama. For my money, it's some of the greatest narrative art of our time. Each series is like a 19th-century Russian novel: you need to do a lot of work in the first few episodes, just as you do in the first 50-60 pages of those books. Kevin Barry

Work Art Time You Money First Few Drama Our Books Those Our Time Television One Of The Things Some Russian Excited Like Most Greatest Narrative Been Lot Just Episodes Pages Novel Series Each Things Need

Before Arthur, I'd dismissed altogether writing fiction. You only have so many semi-sharp arrows in your quiver, I'd told myself, and I was not going to be able to write a novel. Kevin Crossley-Holland

Myself You Writing Before Able Only Write Altogether Arrows Arthur Going Fiction Dismissed Your Many Novel

When I work on a novel, I usually have one character and a setting in mind. Kevin Henkes

Work Character Mind Setting Novel

I can't envision an honest war novel that left war in a positive light. Kevin Powers

Positive War Light Envision Left Novel Honest

Harper Lee's novel 'To Kill a Mockingbird' became iconic almost immediately after appearing in 1960: best-seller status; the Pulitzer Prize the next year; a classic movie soon after, with Gregory Peck in an Academy Award-winning role. Kevin Young

I'm glad I wrote them when I did because I think if I were to write my first novel now, it would be a different book, and it may not be the book that everybody wants to read. But if I were given a red pen now, and I went back... I'd take that thing apart. Khaled Hosseini

Book First Think Everybody Back Pen Would Would-Be Given Glad Write Take Red Wrote Read Because Were Did May Different Wants Apart Them Novel Now Thing

'The Lake of Dreams' grew gradually, over many years, elements and ideas accruing until they gained enough critical mass to become a novel. Kim Edwards

Dreams Become Enough Critical Critical Mass Mass Over Ideas Until Years Gradually Grew Lake Gained Many Novel Elements

In a novel, you have space to develop a character or a scene. You don't have that luxury in a 700-800-word picture book. Kirby Larson

Character You Book Space Luxury Picture Scene Develop Picture Book Novel

A romance novel focuses exclusively on two people falling in love. It can't be about a woman caring for her aging mother or something like that. It can have that element, but it has to be primarily about the male-female relationship. Kristin Hannah

Love Relationship Woman People Mother Caring About Something Primarily Like Falling Falling In Love Romance Aging Novel Element Her Two Two People

Only thanks to blissful ignorance, and the inspiration of my grandparents' story, did I actually believe tackling a novel would be an easy task. I've since learned otherwise. Kristina McMorris

Ignorance Thanks Believe Otherwise Would Would-Be Easy Tackling Only Inspiration Since Learned Task Did Story Grandparents Novel Actually

It is a big temptation to me, when I create a character for a novel, to say that he is what he is because of faulty wiring, or because of microscopic amounts of chemicals which he ate or failed to eat on that particular day. Kurt Vonnegut

I started blogging in 2006 when I had sold my first novel but it had not yet been published, in those anxious months in between while I learned the whole process. Laini Taylor

First Sold Months Those Had Between Learned Been Blogging Anxious In-Between Process While Whole Novel Published Started

In film you can use images exclusively and narrate a whole story very quickly, but you don't always so easily find the form in cinema to dig deeper into human thoughts and emotions. And in a novel you can much more easily express a character's inner thoughts and feelings. Laura Esquivel

Character Thoughts You Emotions Cinema Feelings Dig Easily Find More Always Very Quickly Human Form Story Much Use Whole Novel Express Film Deeper Inner Images

I lived in Boston for three years, and during that time, I wrote my first collection of stories, 'What the World Will Look Like When All the Water Leaves Us;' other stories that didn't make it into the collection; and several failed novel openings. Laura van den Berg

Holy cow - everything about writing a novel is hard for me. Laura van den Berg

Me Writing Everything About Cow Holy Hard Novel

If I'm really rolling with a short story, I work on it everywhere and end up with a finished draft in a couple months, but a novel really demands that I step out of my life and vanish into the world of the book. Laura van den Berg

Unlike a novel, where you expect a different kind of arc that leaves us with a somber sense of resolution, I think a story in some ways as like a train window: being able to watch the landscape pass for a certain amount of time. And then your stop arrives, and you have to leave. Laura van den Berg

Time You Sense Think Unlike Ways Kind Arc Able Somber Some Window Like Pass Leave Leaves Train Expect Stop Being Where Different Story Different Kind Then Us Certain Landscape Your Novel Amount Watch Resolution

We write in a culture that favors the heft of the novel. Better still if the novel in question is large enough to be wielded interchangeably as a doorstop and a weapon. Laura van den Berg

Culture Better Enough Favors Weapon Write Still Question Large Novel

Like many American readers, I was first introduced to Magda Szabo's work when New York Review Books reissued the Hungarian master's profound and haunting novel 'The Door.' Laura van den Berg

Work First Master Books Hungarian Introduced Haunting New Like Readers Review American York New York Door Many Novel Profound

At 18, my first short story was published - I was paid a penny a word by a science fiction magazine. I continued to write, and five years later I published my first novel, 'Sweetwater.' Laurence Yep

Science Word Penny First Later Magazine Write Science Fiction Continue Years Five Short Fiction Short Story Story Paid Novel Published

To me, the contemporary novel suffers from a lack of sense of place - or spirit of place, if you will. It's not important to most writers, I must assume, or they try to research a given background on sabbatical. Not for me. I write about places I've lived long before I ever set pen to paper. Lawrence Osborne

Me You Try Will Long Important Before Sense Research Assume Background Paper Pen Must Spirit About Given Sabbatical Write Writers Most Contemporary Lack Place Places Novel Lived Ever Suffers Set

Sometimes you can publish a first novel in a kind of lyrical flourish, but it is not really a lyrical form. The beautiful truths about the world are more hard won than that. Novels should be bleach boned. It's a question of cumulative observation and lived suffering. It takes time. Lawrence Osborne

Beautiful Time You Suffering World Sometimes First Publish Lyrical Kind About More Observation Takes Question Cumulative Won Than Truths Form Really Should Hard Novel Novels Lived Flourish

I love the novel as a form, as an adventure of mind and soul. Really, I absolutely love writing them; they consume my days and nights - what can I say? But I am an avid film student, too: I watch a movie every night. Lawrence Osborne

Love Soul Writing Mind Every Nights Too Say Absolutely Consume Student Adventure Days Am Movie Form Them Really Avid Novel Film Watch Every Night Night

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