Writing Fiction Quotes - Page 7

• I'm always in the kitchen, cooking and experimenting - I love it. And every now and then I think, 'I should write a cookbook' or, 'I should write for food magazines.' And then I get drawn back to writing fiction again.

  Kiran Desai

  Writing, Thinking, Cooking

  5 Copy quote

• Expressing political opinion can be a powerful way to establish a character's voice when writing fiction.

  Jen Lancaster

  Powerful, Writing, Character

  4 Copy quote

• I was an outsider, never quite part of what was going on, always looking in. It turned out to be great preparation for writing fiction.

  Hallie Ephron

  Writing, Preparation, Fiction

  5 Copy quote

• When I'm writing fiction I'm thinking, God, this is so hard - I have to make all this stuff up! I wish I were writing a nonfiction book where all the facts are laid out and I don't have to be so much at sea.

  Douglas Preston

  Book, Writing, Thinking

  "The Power of Two: Bonus Outtakes From WD Interview With Lincoln Child & Douglas Preston". Interview with Brian A. Klems, www.writersdigest.com. January 12, 2012.

  16 Copy quote

  Show source

• In [writing] fiction, every sentence is its own reward.

  Amy Tan

  Writing, Fiction, Rewards

  4 Copy quote

• I had been writing fiction since I was in eighth grade, because I loved it.

  Thomas Perry

  Writing, Fiction, Grades

  7 Copy quote

• As a novelist, I mined my history, my family and my memory, but in a very specific way. Writing fiction, I never made use of experiences immediately as they happened. I needed to let things fester in my memory, mature and transmogrify into something meaningful.

  Ayelet Waldman

  Meaningful, Memories, Writing

  4 Copy quote

• The best thing about writing fiction is that moment where the story catches fire and comes to life on the page, and suddenly it all makes sense and you know what it's about and why you're doing it and what these people are saying and doing, and you get to feel like both the creator and the audience. Everything is suddenly both obvious and surprising ("but of course that's why he was doing that, and that means that...") and it's magic and wonderful and strange.

  Neil Gaiman

  Mean, Writing, Fire

  "Why Write?" by Neil Gaiman, journal.neilgaiman.com. October 15, 2007.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• When you're writing fiction, you don't have notes necessarily. You don't carve it, it's not like a piece of sculpture, it's more like water color.

  Joan Didion

  Writing, Color, Water

  Academy of Achievement Interview, www.achievement.org. June 3, 2006.

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• I would, however, start writing fiction about 10 years before I actually did, because it's such great fun to do, many times more creative than nonfiction.

  Judith Krantz

  Fun, Writing, Creative Nonfiction

  72 Copy quote

• In a sense, journalism can be both helpful and detrimental to a writer of fiction because the kind of writing you need to do as a journalist is so different. It has to be clear, unambiguous, concise, and as a writer often you are trying to do things that are more ambiguous. I find that writing fiction is often an antidote to reading and writing too much journalism.

  Aravind Adiga

  Reading, Writing, Trying

  "MoJo Interview: Aravind Adiga". Interview with Sonja Sharp, www.motherjones.com. June 19, 2009.

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• If you're writing fiction, you're dealing with characters who, themselves, will have heartfelt sentiments but who, themselves, live in this culture right now and thus face all the impediments to sort of dealing with those parts of their lives that, you know, that we did. So it would be not only silly but unrealistic to have a character saying that kind of stuff.

  David Foster Wallace

  Silly, Writing, Character

  Source: news.stlpublicradio.org

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Writing fiction is a solitary occupation but not really a lonely one. The writer's head is mobbed with characters, images and language, making the creative process something like eavesdropping at a party for which you've had the fun of drawing up the guest list. Loneliness usually doesn't set in until the work is finished, and all the partygoers and their imagined universe have disappeared.

  Hilma Wolitzer

  Lonely, Fun, Loneliness

  45 Copy quote

• Writing fiction is not a profession that leaves one well-disposed toward reading fiction. One starts out loving books and stories, and then one becomes jaded and increasingly hard to please. I read less and less fiction these days, finding the buzz and the joy I used to get from fiction in ever stranger works of non-fiction, or poetry.

  Neil Gaiman

  Book, Reading, Writing

  Neil Gaiman (2002). “Adventures in the Dream Trade”, N E S F A Press

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• Writing fiction takes me out of time. I sit down and the clock will not exist for me for a few hours. That’s probably as close to immortal as we’ll ever get.

  David Foster Wallace

  Writing, Fiction, Down And

  9 Copy quote

• writing fiction is the best thing there is because absolutely everything is possible!

  Mario Vargas Llosa

  Writing, Fiction, Best Things

  5 Copy quote