249 Novelist Quotes for You to Enjoy

With a novelist, like a surgeon, you have to get a feeling that you've fallen into good hands - someone from whom you can accept the anesthetic with confidence. Saul Bellow

Good You Confidence Surgeon Feeling Anesthetic Someone Like Accept Fallen Get Hands Novelist Whom

You know, my mom, who inspired me to be a novelist, I remember her reading 'The Agony and the Ecstasy,' about Michelangelo, and saying, 'No mother would want that for her child, no matter how great the artist.' I have my share of demons, but I am a gregarious sort. Scott Turow

Saying Mom Great Me You Remember Mother Matter Reading Would About Inspired Share Know Ecstasy Sort How Am Demons Michelangelo Child Artist Gregarious Want Who Agony Novelist Her

I don't know if a novelist ever fully detaches him- or herself from what they wrote and the way they wrote it. I can watch 'Presumed Innocent' again and again, and I will always be bothered by the same things that will never bother anybody else. Scott Turow

If a novelist has created vivid characters, interesting relationships, settings the reader can easily imagine, and intriguing stories, a screenwriter has loads to work with. The challenge comes with deciding what to cut and what to keep. Seth Grahame-Smith

Work Challenge Settings Relationships Easily Characters Intriguing Vivid Reader Stories Screenwriter Deciding Interesting Cut Created Novelist Keep Loads Imagine

The reason I write is because I have questions. What I don't want is for people to forget that I'm a novelist and think I'm a sociologist or something. I don't want to feel trapped into a corner where I don't belong. Sheila Heti

People Trapped Think Corner Something Write Feel Because Questions Forget Where Want Reason Novelist Belong

Pundits always have something to write about; the novelist just has a blank screen. Simon Mawer

Pundits About Something Blank Write Always Just Screen Novelist

The novelist's obligation to remake the sensuous texture of a vanished world is also the historian's. The strongest fiction writers often do deep research to make the thought and utterances of lost time credible. Simon Schama

I truly believe that as a novelist, you cannot adequately describe the weather in England - the light, the dampness, the bitterness, the summer softness, and so on - without having experienced it. Stephanie Laurens

You Light Bitterness Weather Believe Softness Summer Adequately Having Without Truly Experienced Cannot England Describe Novelist

I'm on the rise and whatnot, but I'm not the man to say, 'All right, world, here's grime.' It's gonna take me, Skepta, JME, Novelist and Lethal Bizzle, to say, 'I'm sick, he's sick, he's sick, he's sick'. Not one man can do it. Stormzy

Me Man World Sick Say One-Man Rise Take He Whatnot Gonna Novelist Lethal Right Here

Being a novelist is the adult version of a kid creating a make-believe world. But unlike a child, a writer of fiction has to come up with a structured story, one that has as much meaning for others as it has for her. Susan Isaacs

We joined a Conservative synagogue. I began learning through engagement, rote and reading. Suddenly, I belonged... well, to the extent that a novelist can ever feel she is part of a group; we may be part of a minyan, but we're not fully merged into the community. Susan Isaacs

Learning Conservative Reading Community Group Synagogue Joined Through Part Feel Merged She Well Began May Engagement Fully Rote Novelist Suddenly Ever Extent Belonged

As a novelist, I ask of myself only that I tell the truth and that I tell it beautifully. Taiye Selasi

Truth Myself Tell Only Beautifully Ask Novelist

I've been a novelist since 1995 and have had novels in and out of option, and watching that process just made me realize that I have to live by what I teach my students, because I teach screenwriting at Spellman. Tananarive Due

Me Made Live Out Students Had Since Because Been Option Just Screenwriting Process To Live By Realize Teach Novelist Novels Watching

One's politics are part of one even when one is writing. But if I want to say anything about the state of civil society, I will write an essay. The responsibilities you feel as a novelist are literary ones, I think, not civic ones. And I think politicians are interesting to write about. Thomas Mallon

Politics You Writing Will Politicians Think Society State Say Responsibilities Civic Civil About Civil Society Write Part Feel Essay Want Literary Anything Interesting Even Novelist

I guess I would say that most of what I've learned about storytelling derives from novels and short stories. I cannot think of a novel or story, or a novelist or story writer, who thinks in terms of three-act structure. Tom Bissell

I stopped performing because I don't have the temperament of a performer. You have to want to do the same thing over and over again. Once I got it right, I didn't want to do it again. I always use the analogy of a novelist who has to read his novel in public night after night. I just didn't want to do it. Tom Lehrer

You Same Thing Analogy Once Temperament Over Performer Performing Read Because Always Got His Same Just Stopped Want After Again Public Use Who Novel Novelist Right Thing Night

I am the luckiest novelist in the world. I was a first-time novelist who wasn't awash in rejection slips, whose manuscript didn't disappear in slush piles. I have had a wonderful time. Vikas Swarup

Time Wonderful World Rejection Slips Slush Had Disappear Piles Am Wonderful Time Who Manuscript Luckiest Novelist Whose Rejection Slips

The trick to being a novelist is to act like an iceberg. Make it seem as if you're displaying only one-tenth of what you know, and the other nine-tenths isn't visible and never mind if that part is pure styrofoam! Vikram Seth

You Mind Pure Other Nine-Tenths Visible Trick Seem Only Never Part Like Know Make Being Iceberg Act Displaying Novelist

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