Novelists Quotes - Page 20

• Life is only limited by our prejudices. Destroy them, and you cease to be at the mercy of yourself.

  Mina Loy

  Life, Motivational, Change

  Mina Loy (2015). “The Lost Lunar Baedeker: Poems of Mina Loy”, p.150, Macmillan

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• Real things in the darkness seem no realer than dreams.

  Murasaki Shikibu

  Dream, Real, Dark

  Lady Murasaki, Murasaki Shikibu, Arthur Waley (2000). “The Tale of Genji”, p.5, Courier Corporation

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• No one can be as calculatedly rude as the British, which amazes Americans, who do not understand studied insult and can only offer abuse as a substitute.

  Paul Gallico

  Inspirational, Rude, Insulting

  The New York Times, January 14, 1962.

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• There are times when the mind is dealt such a blow it hides itself in insanity. While this may not seem beneficial, it is. There are times when reality is nothing but pain, and to escape that pain the mind must leave reality behind.

  Patrick Rothfuss

  Time, Pain, Blow

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• Never underestimate the Pricey.

  Katie Price

  Self Love, Singers, Underestimate

  Katie Price (2008). “Jordan: Pushed to the Limit”, p.280, Random House

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• The past exists only in our memories, the future only in our plans. The present is our only reality.

  Robert M. Pirsig

  Inspirational, Memories, Future

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• Writing is a miracle. You can travel anywhere in the world, to any time and any place — and still be home in time to have dinner.

  Mary Pope Osborne

  Time, Travel, Home

  Twitter post from Jan 28, 2018

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• History repeats itself.

  George Eliot

  Wise, Wisdom, History

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• Logic, like whiskey, loses its beneficial effect when taken in too large quantities.

  Lord Dunsany

  Taken, Math, Statistics

  "My Ireland". Book by Lord Dunsany (Chapter XIX: Weeds and Moss), 1937.

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• Ask yourself why totalitarian dictatorships find it necessary to pour money and effort into propaganda for their own helpless, chained, gagged slaves, who have no means of protest or defense. The answer is that even the humblest peasant or the lowest savage would rise in blind rebellion, were he to realize that he is being immolated, not to some incomprehensible noble purpose, but to plain, naked human evil.

  Ayn Rand

  Mean, Tyrants, Evil

  Ayn Rand (1999). “Ayn Rand Reader”, p.136, Penguin

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• Truth is the recognition of reality; reason, man's only means of knowledge, is his only standard of truth.

  Ayn Rand

  Truth, Knowledge, Mean

  Ayn Rand (1999). “Ayn Rand Reader”, p.260, Penguin

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• To fear to face an issue is to believe that the worst is true.

  Ayn Rand

  Fear, Believe, Issues

  Ayn Rand (2016). “Atlas Shrugged”, p.808, Hamilton Books

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• All life is a purposeful struggle, and your only choice is the choice of a goal.

  Ayn Rand

  Inspirational, Life, Struggle

  Ayn Rand (1963). “For the New Intellectual: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand (50th Anniversary Edition)”, p.155, Penguin

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• When you force a man to act against his own choice and judgment, it's his thinking that you want him to suspend.

  Ayn Rand

  Men, Thinking, People

  Ayn Rand (2011). “Ayn Rand Novel Collection”, p.2313, Penguin

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• The charming aspect of Christmas is the fact that it expresses good will in a cheerful, happy, benevolent, non-sacrificial way. One says: “Merry Christmas”-not “Weep and Repent.” And the good will is expressed in a material, earthly form-by giving presents to one's friends, or by sending them cards in token of remembrance . . . .

  Ayn Rand

  Happiness, Happy, Friends

  Ayn Rand (1988). “The Ayn Rand Lexicon: Objectivism from A to Z”, p.91, Penguin

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• The syndicates take the strip and sell it to newspapers and split the income with the cartoonists. Syndicates are essentially agents. Now, can you imagine a novelist giving his literary agent the ownership of his characters and all reprint, television, and movie rights before the agent takes the manuscript to a publisher? Obviously, an author would have to be a raving lunatic to agree to such a deal, but virtually every cartoonist does exactly that when a syndicate demands ownership before agreeing to sell the strip to newspapers.

  Bill Watterson

  Movie, Character, Rights

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• An important factor to note is that it's rare for anyone to sell a first novel written before they turned 30-35; long-format fiction tends to require a bunch of experience of human life that takes time to acquire. So your average mid-career novelist is in their forties to fifties!

  Charles Stross

  Careers, Average, Long

  Reddit AMA, www.reddit.com. July 02, 2012.

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• Most established novelists are writing books informed by experiences gained in their youth. Middle age is not the best time to be changing smartphones every six months or adopting new technology platforms - because we tend to get slower and less accommodating to change as we age.

  Charles Stross

  Book, Writing, Technology

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• We're currently living with a generation of established novelists who are embarrassingly out of date with respect to social networking, internet skills, and so on.

  Charles Stross

  Skills, Networking, Generations

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• I'm not imprisoned in any one medium. In films I use techniques that are not necessarily what other directors attempt. When I write novels I also use techniques which can run counter to those that a novelist would use.

  Philippe Claudel

  Running, Writing, Technique

  Source: www.indiewire.com

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• I'm probably the only novelist who has ever written about political fugitives who actually knew a lot about them, had contact with them, and had a realistic notion of how they survived.

  Marge Piercy

  Political, Realistic, Contact

  Interview with Charlotte Templin, margepiercy.com. May 2004.

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• Naturally a direct comparison of terrorist and novelist is complete nonsense. But there was once a time when the novelist also had some influence on how his contemporaries thought, the way they saw the world, the way they lived.

  Don DeLillo

  World, Way, Saws

  "I don't know America anymore". Interview with Christoph Amend, Georg Diez, perival.com. October 11, 2007.

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• If any art form can accommodate contemporary culture, it's the novel. It's so malleable - it can incorporate essays, poetry, film. Maybe the challenge for the novelist is to stretch his art and his language, to the point where it can finally describe what's happening around him.

  Don DeLillo

  Art, Challenges, Culture

  "Don DeLillo's Hidden Truths". Interview with David Streitfield, perival.com. November 11, 1997.

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• Not long ago, a novelist could believe he could have an effect on our consciousness of terror. Today, the men who shape and inflence human consciousness are the terrorists.

  Don DeLillo

  Believe, Men, Long Ago

  "I Take the Language Apart". Interview with Nora Kerr, perival.com. June 9, 1991.

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• I think it's especially important for an editor to say what he's enjoying. For a novelist to be told, midstream, what he's doing right can actually influence the unwritten parts of a novel in a positive way - praise helps a writer know what's good about what he's written, what's interesting and exciting, and what to work for in writing the conclusion.

  Donna Tartt

  Writing, Thinking, Editors

  Interview with Michael Pietsch, www.slate.com. October 11, 2013.

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