Novelists Quotes

• I cannot and do not live in the world of discretion, not as a writer, anyway. I would prefer to, I assure you - it would make life easier. But discretion is, unfortunately, not for novelists.

  Philip Roth

  World, Easier, Discretion

  FaceBook post by Philip Roth from Jul 07, 2011

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• The bicycle, the bicycle surely, should always be the vehicle of novelists and poets.

  Christopher Morley

  Healing, Cycling, Cyclists

  Christopher Morley (1935). “Morley's Magnum”

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• Humor is, I think, the subtlest and chanciest of literary forms. It is surely not accidental that there are a thousand novelists, essayists, poets or journalists for each humorist. It is a long, long time between James Thurbers.

  Leo Rosten

  Time, Laughter, Thinking

  Leo Calvin Rosten (1959). “The return of H*y*m*a*n K*a*p*l*a*n”

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• In learning to pay respectful attention to one another and plants and animals, we relearn the acts of empathy, and thus humility and compassion - ways of proceeding that grow more and more necessary as the world crowds in.

  William Kittredge

  Inspirational, Motivational, Learning

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• Every man is a moon; he has a side no one sees.

  Mark Twain

  Wisdom, Men, Moon

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• A petty reason perhaps why novelists more and more try to keep a distance from journalists is that novelists are trying to write the truth and journalists are trying to write fiction.

  Graham Greene

  Fake People, Distance, Writing

  Graham Greene (1993). “Mornings in the dark: the Graham Greene film reader”, Carcanet Press Ltd.

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• You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.

  Ray Bradbury

  Inspirational, Life, Struggle

  FaceBook post by Ray Bradbury from Dec 08, 2014

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• Novelists do not write as birds sing, by the push of nature. It is part of the job that there should be much routine and some daily stuff on the level of carpentry.

  William Golding

  Jobs, Writing, Bird

  William Golding (2013). “Moving Target”, p.139, Faber & Faber

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• I'm a failed poet. Maybe every novelist wants to write poetry first, finds he can't, and then tries the short story, which is the most demanding form after poetry. And, failing at that, only then does he take up novel writing.

  William Faulkner

  Writing, Trying, Doe

  "William Faulkner, The Art of Fiction No. 12". Interview with Jean Stein, www.theparisreview.org. 1956.

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• Nothing becomes reality in the political life of a nation that was not present in its literature as spirit.

  Hugo von Hofmannsthal

  Life, Reality, Political

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• Those who tell you that man is unable to perceive a reality undistorted by his senses, mean that they are unwilling to perceive a reality undistorted by their feelings. "Things as they are" are things as perceived by your mind; divorce them from reason and they become "things as perceived by your wishes.

  Ayn Rand

  Mean, Divorce, Reality

  Ayn Rand (2016). “Atlas Shrugged”, p.791, Hamilton Books

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• I do not seek the good of others as a sanction for my right to exist, nor do I recognize the good of others as a justification for their seizure of my property or their destruction of my life.

  Ayn Rand

  Life, Rights, Philosopher

  Ayn Rand (1963). “For the New Intellectual: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand (50th Anniversary Edition)”, p.78, Penguin

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• When we first met, I didn't want to get involved with anyone. I didn't have the time or energy, and I wasn't sure that I was ready for it. But you were so good to me, and I got swept up in that. And little by little, I found myself falling in love with you.

  Nicholas Sparks

  Love, Romantic, Time

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• Sometimes seeing everything just gets in the way.

  Chris Lynch

  Way, Sometimes, Inconvenience

  Chris Lynch (2011). “Angry Young Man”, p.167, Simon and Schuster

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• the best often die by their own hand just to get away, and those left behind can never quite understand why anybody would ever want to get away from them

  Charles Bukowski

  Hands, Understanding, Want

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• Cosmic time is the same for everyone, but human time differs with each person. Time flows in the same way for all human beings; every human being flows through time in a different way.

  Yasunari Kawabata

  Time, Perception, Different

  Yasunari Kawabata (1996). “Beauty and Sadness”, Vintage Books

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• For you was I born, for you do I have life, for you will I die, for you am I now dying.

  Gabriel Garcia Marquez

  Love, Life, Dying

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• A very important thing is not to make up your mind that you are any one thing.

  Gertrude Stein

  Mind, Important, Powerful Women

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• You must learn to be strong in the dark as well as in the day, else you will always be only half brave.

  George MacDonald

  Strength, Being Strong, Courage

  George MacDonald (1904). “The Day Boy and the Night Girl”, p.48, Library of Alexandria

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• Besties before testes.

  Gena Showalter

  Funny, Best Friend, Testicles

  Gena Showalter (2015). “The White Rabbit Chronicles: Alice in Zombieland\Through the Zombie Glass\The Queen of Zombie Hearts”, p.980, Harlequin

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• Of course I'm trying to trick you! That's the way of the world, Baudelaires. Everyone runs around with their secrets and their schemes, trying to outwit everyone else.

  Daniel Handler

  Running, Secret, Trying

  "The End". Book by Daniel Handler, 2006.

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• What happens when you let an unsatisfactory present go on long enough? It becomes your entire history.

  Louise Erdrich

  Life, Past, Long

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• You'd be amazed how much research you can get done when you have no life whatsoever.

  Ernest Cline

  Funny, Life, Humorous

  "Ready Player One". Book by Ernest Cline, 2011.

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• This tremendous world I have inside of me. How to free myself, and this world, without tearing myself to pieces. And rather tear myself to a thousand pieces than be buried with this world within me.

  Franz Kafka

  Tears, Pieces, World

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• You don't have to see through the eyes of others, hold onto yours, stand on your own judgment, you know that what is, is–say it aloud, like the holiest of prayers, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

  Ayn Rand

  Prayer, Eye, Knowing

  Ayn Rand (2016). “Atlas Shrugged”, p.680, Hamilton Books

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