93 Novelists Quotes for You to Enjoy

Novelists should be like scientists, dissecting the cadaver. J. G. Ballard

Like Scientists Should Novelists Dissecting

There is no doubt that Michael Symmons Roberts is a very good poet - you don't win a Whitbread award and get shortlisted for a TS Eliot prize for nothing. Few poets, though, have ever been good novelists, and vice-versa. James Hawes

Good You Win Poet Few Nothing Doubt Though No Doubt Poets Roberts Been Very Michael Prize Get Novelists Award Ever

Crime novelists do really well with Los Angeles. Janet Fitch

Crime Angeles Well Los Los Angeles Really Novelists

We crime novelists have a great pulpit. We write about justice and about correcting injustice. Jesse Kellerman

Great Justice Injustice Crime Pulpit Correcting About Write Novelists

The novel is resilient, and so are novelists. John Banville

Novel Novelists Resilient

'Shun security,' I advise aspiring novelists when they complain to me that they are stuck. 'Get disoriented. Maybe your agonizing writing block isn't agonizing enough. Your enemy is comfort.' John Burdett

Me Writing Enemy Complain Enough Security Stuck Comfort Advise Block Get Maybe Your Disoriented Aspiring Agonizing Novelists Shun

Novelists are not equipped to make a movie, in my opinion. They make their own movie when they write: they're casting, they're dressing the scene, they're working out where the energy of the scene is coming from and they're also relying tremendously on the creative imagination of the reader. John le Carre

Like every novelist, I fantasise about film. Novelists are not equipped to make a movie, in my opinion. They make their own movie when they write: they're casting, they're dressing the scene, they're working out where the energy of the scene is coming from, and they're also relying tremendously on the creative imagination of the reader. John le Carre

Creative Own Energy Every Imagination Tremendously Out Dressing About Scene Relying Casting Write Like Also Make Reader Opinion Equipped Coming Where In My Opinion Movie Working Novelist Novelists Film

Novelists seem to fall into two distinct categories - those that plan and those that just see where it takes them. I am very much the former category. Jojo Moyes

Fall Distinct Those See Seem Takes Categories Category Am Very Just Where Former Them Plan Much Novelists Two

I think it's also the case that I'm not as widely travelled, or as well-educated in history, as most of the other novelists I meet: so I have to write about my own country, at the present time, because it's more or less all I know about! Jonathan Coe

Time History Country Own Think Other Meet About Case My Own More More Or Less Write Know Most Also Because Well-Educated Less Novelists Travelled Present Widely Present Time

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

Most novelists are narcissistic egomaniacs who would probably fit somewhere on the CEO spectrum. Joshua Cohen

Somewhere Would Most Narcissistic Fit CEO Who Novelists Spectrum

Novelists can ask - they can ask for anything - but their books are their answers in advance. Joshua Cohen

Books Advance Answers Anything Ask Novelists

It is true that it is usually for their books that novelists reserve their most considered and ordered thoughts, but the fact is they arise inescapably from one consciousness: the same one that is occupied in all the other activities which make up a life. Justin Cartwright

It is a commonplace to say that novelists should be judged by their work rather than their private lives or their publicly expressed views. And writers, of course, subscribe enthusiastically to this idea. Justin Cartwright

Work Subscribe Say Enthusiastically Rather Writers Idea Judged Course Private Private Lives Than Commonplace Should Views Novelists Expressed Publicly Lives

Novelists get to say plenty in their massive tomes; rock singers only get four-minute songs with two verses and a chorus' worth of lyrics, and so there's a real pleasure in accessing the intelligence behind the music, even if it doesn't qualify as 'great literature.' Karan Mahajan

Music Great Intelligence Worth Lyrics Say Pleasure Plenty Great Literature Only Songs Qualify Massive Singers Rock Real Verses Get Real Pleasure Behind Literature Even Novelists Chorus Two

Alternate history fascinates me, as it fascinates all novelists, because 'What if?' is the big thing. Kate Atkinson

Me History Big Alternate Because What If Big Thing Fascinates Novelists Thing

We all now tell stories by cutting from one dramatic scene to the next, whereas Victorian novelists felt free to write long passages of undramatic summary. Ken Follett

Free Long Dramatic Summary Tell Scene Write Felt Passages Whereas Stories Victorian Cutting Next Novelists Now

I've spent most of my adult life in the United States, and there the celebrity culture has been entrenched for a long time. It has made people almost literally insane, even those who make a great show of repudiating it. Those people, like novelists, who can no longer enjoy this status are condemned to despise it. Lawrence Osborne

Life Time Great Culture People Made Long Long Time Enjoy Despise Spent States Those Insane Has-Been Status Entrenched Adult Adult Life Great Show Almost Longer Like Most Make Condemned Been Celebrity Celebrity Culture Literally Show Who Even Novelists United United States

Even if I couldn't get my early novels published, I could still write. I went into newspapers, where I got paid to write every day. If there's a better school for would-be novelists, I don't know what it is. Linwood Barclay

Awful film adaptations follow novelists for the rest of their lives. An atrocious movie of 'We Need to Talk About Kevin' could have stigmatised the book, aggrieved the novel's fans, and blighted my reputation forever. Lionel Shriver

Book Fans Rest Reputation Follow About Atrocious Could Talk Forever Movie Novel Novelists Film Lives Awful Need Adaptation Kevin

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