Novel Quotes - Page 2

• Novels written with film contracts in mind have a faint but unmistakable, and ruinous, odor.

  Annie Dillard

  Mind, Odor, Film

  4 Copy quote

• When a novel comes, it's a grace. Something in the cosmos has forgiven you long enough so that you can start.

  Norman Mailer

  Long, Grace, Cosmos

  1991 In The Guardian, 5 Oct.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• The novel wins by points, the short story by knockout.

  Julio Cortazar

  Winning, Stories, Knockouts

  88 Copy quote

• The novel is a game or joke shared between author and reader.

  Annie Dillard

  Games, Reader, Jokes

  4 Copy quote

• An old novel has a history of its own.

  Alexander Smith

  Fiction

  Alexander Smith (1863). “Dreamthorp: A Book of Essays Written in the Country”, p.17

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• I've published several virtually invisible novels and several dozen even more invisible short stories over the years, all of which give me joy - unlike the cumulative experience of seeking publishers for them!

  Scott Bradfield

  Years, Giving, Joy

  "Go Forth (Vol. 15)". Interview with Brandon Hobson, logger.believermag.com. September 10, 2013.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• I've heard Stephen King say that when you write a novel you end up revealing everything about yourself.

  Ernest Cline

  Kings, Writing, Ends

  "Author Ernie Cline Was Told Video Games Would Rot His Brain, But Who Holds the High Score Now?". Interview with Michael Mechanic, www.motherjones.com. July 10, 2015.

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• I don't talk about my books while I'm writing them: not even my husband knows what a novel's about until it's done.

  Sarah Dessen

  Husband, Book, Writing

  "Author Interview: Sarah Dessen on Just Listen". Interview with Cynthia Leitich Smith, cynthialeitichsmith.blogspot.com. December 12, 2006.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Usually, ordinary histories don't get the emotional feel of a period. That's what a novel can do.

  Alix Kates Shulman

  Emotional, Ordinary, Periods

  7 Copy quote

• My novels are very much the same, as I think many people's novels are.

  Ann Patchett

  Thinking, People

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• I'm not reading any novels right now, though not for lack of trying. Unless they're really good, my attention in most novels tends to sputter out after a hundred pages or so - an awful admission for someone who is trying to write one, but it's true.

  Matthew Healy

  Reading, Writing, Trying

  Source: blog.superstitionreview.asu.edu

  34 Copy quote

  Show source

• I'd always hoped to write the story as a novel, but there was a long period when the [Bridget Jones's Baby: The Diaries] movie was stalled and in confusion. I felt frustrated creatively, and just couldn't work on the Baby material till the movie was sorted out.

  Helen Fielding

  Baby, Writing, Confusion

  "Helen Fielding on 'Bridget Jones's Baby'". Interview With Seira Wilson, www.amazonbookreview.com. November 7, 2016.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• That's when the idea for Mad About the Boy arrived. It wasn't even a Bridget [Jones] story initially - then I realized I was writing in Bridget's voice and it grew from there into a Bridget novel.

  Helen Fielding

  Writing, Boys, Ideas

  Source: www.omnivoracious.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• I got into my usual obsessive writing frenzy, using all the material I'd worked on for so long and crafting it into a little novel [Bridget Jones's Baby: The Diaries].

  Helen Fielding

  Baby, Writing, Long

  "Helen Fielding on 'Bridget Jones's Baby'". Interview with Seira Wilson, www.amazonbookreview.com. November 7, 2016.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• My idea of a good novel was one you made enough money out of to buy a greenhouse.

  Terry Pratchett

  Ideas, Enough, Made

  Source: bobneilson.org

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• A police procedural novel can be even funnier if the police include Trolls and Dwarves and things like that. You start looking at the whole basis of the cop novel. You get the cop moving in a different way when you've actually set it in a fantasy city.

  Terry Pratchett

  Moving, Dwarves, Cities

  Source: bobneilson.org

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• People don't like to say comic so they say Graphic Novel, despite the fact that I don't think the true Graphic Novel has been written anywhere.

  Terry Pratchett

  Thinking, People, Facts

  Source: bobneilson.org

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• I have a suspicion - I have to be careful what I say - that you might actually find the best comics actually written by people who are comics writers and who aren't setting out to do graphic novels.

  Terry Pratchett

  People, Might, Graphic Novels

  Source: bobneilson.org

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• I mistrust the term graphic novel because it sounds like a good thing to put on a tee-shirt. That's why the French like them.

  Terry Pratchett

  Sound, Shirts, Good Things

  Source: bobneilson.org

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• From beginning to end, the novel [Dissemblers] took about three and a half years to write. I didn't write it chronologically.

  Liza Campbell

  Writing, Years, Three

  Source: newwest.net

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• I knew the basic outline of the novel [The Dissemblers] and would write whatever scene of the book I felt particularly excited about at the time.

  Liza Campbell

  Book, Writing, Excited

  Source: newwest.net

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• This was my first novel [The Dissemblers ]. I've never seriously written short stories, and actually find short stories much more intimidating as an art form than novels.

  Liza Campbell

  Art, Stories, Firsts

  Source: newwest.net

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• I'm working on a novel about a girl who grows up in the circus and her relationship with her father, who grew up in Hungary when it was under Soviet control and left during the 1956 revolution. It is told from both of their perspectives, and has been a joy (and very frustrating) to research and write. Needless to say, I am very excited about my next project!

  Liza Campbell

  Girl, Growing Up, Father

  Source: newwest.net

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• I think I'm succinct to the point of trying to write the two-word novel. Editing my work almost never means taking anything out but rather adding, because I'm always stripping down. I tend to under-write rather than over-write.

  Kate DiCamillo

  Writing, Mean, Thinking

  TeachingBooks.net Interview, www.teachingbooks.net. November 12, 2005.

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• One of the most difficult things in writing a novel or anything at all is to choose the point of view from which it's going to be told.

  Truman Capote

  Writing, Views, Point Of View

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

  7 Copy quote

  Show source