Quotes about Novelist

Novelist-Citizen of Two Countries Interpreter of his Generation on both Sides of the Sea. Votes: 3

As a child I was an inveterate liar. As opposed to now, I am a Novelist. Votes: 3

The Novelist, afraid his ideas may be foolish, slyly puts them in the mouth of some other fool and reserves the right to disavow them. Votes: 3

The Electroshock Novelist: The Alluring Bad Boy of Literary England Has Always Been Fascinated by Britain's Dustbin Empire. Now Martin Amis Takes On American Excess, Votes: 3

Novelist time is reptile time; novelists tend to be ruminant and brooding, nursers of ancient grievances, second-guessers, Tuesday afternoon quarterbacks, retrospectators, endlessly, like slumping hitters, studying the film of their old whiffs. Votes: 3

Historian: an unsuccessful novelist. Votes: 2

I am a fictionalizing philosopher, not a novelist. Votes: 2

Not until my middle thirties did I consider myself a novelist. Votes: 2

A novelist can get by on story, but the poet has nothing but the words. Votes: 2

The historian will tell you what happened. The novelist will tell you what it felt like. Votes: 2

A filmmaker has almost the same freedom as a novelist has when he buys himself some paper. Votes: 2

I'm a big, bombastic novelist and thrill-ride guy. I'm never going to win the National Book Award. Votes: 2

As an historical novelist - there are few jobs more retrospective. I dumped science at an early age. Votes: 2

I've always liked the idea that writing is a form of travel. And I started my writing career as a mystery novelist for adults. Votes: 2

What description of clouds and sunsets was to the old novelist, description of scientific apparatus and methods is to the modern Scientific Detective writer. Votes: 2

The suspense of a novel is not only in the reader, but in the novelist, who is intensely curious about what will happen to the hero. Votes: 2

A novelist who writes nothing for 10 years finds his reputation rising. Because I keep on producing books they say there must be something wrong with this fellow. Votes: 2

The contemporary American novelist benefits in a way from being ignored. It makes you angrier and makes you want to go into all of those places where you shouldn't. Votes: 2

If a person is not talented enough to be a novelist, not smart enough to be a lawyer, and his hands are too shaky to perform operations, he becomes a journalist. Votes: 2

The artist deals in what cannot be said in words. The artist whose medium is fiction does this in words. The novelist says in words what cannot be said in words. Votes: 2

The art of the novelist is not unrelated to the illness of multiple personality disorder. It's a much milder form. But the better the book, the nearer to the padded cell you are. Votes: 2

It is not the first duty of the novelist to provide blueprints for insurrection, or uplifting tales of successful resistance for the benefit of the opposition. The naming of what is there is what is important. Votes: 2

A house with any kind of age will have dozens of stories to tell. I suppose if a novelist could live long enough, one could base an entire oeuvre on the lives that weave in and out of an antique house. Votes: 2

Mark Twain was a great traveler and he wrote three or four great travel books. I wouldn't say that I'm a travel novelist but rather a novelist who travels - and who uses travel as a background for finding stories of places. Votes: 2

That balance between involvement and detachment is what novelists do. It's the ideal relationship between a novelist and a character, I think, total involvement and identity and empathy, stopping short of being autobiographical - in my case, anyway - but also quite detached. Votes: 2

It's like a novelist writing far out things. If it makes a point and makes sense, then people like to read that. But if it's off in left field and goes over the edge, you lose it. The same with musical talent, I think. Votes: 2

Manners are of such great consequence to the novelist that any kind will do. Bad manners are better than no manners at all, and because we are losing our customary manners, we are probably overly conscious of them; this seems to be a condition that produces writers. Votes: 2

To sing a song is quite different than to write a poem. I'm not and never will be a novelist, but to write a novel is not the same thing as writing a play. There is a difference in form, but essentially what you're after is the same thing. Votes: 2

In journalism just one fact that is false prejudices the entire work. In contrast, in fiction one single fact that is true gives legitimacy to the entire work. That's the only difference, and it lies in the commitment of the writer. A novelist can do anything he wants so long as he makes people believe in it. Votes: 2

For a spy novelist like me, the Edward J. Snowden story has everything. A man driven by ego and idealism - can anyone ever distinguish the two? - leaves his job and his beautiful girlfriend behind. He must tell the world the Panopticon has arrived. His masters vow to punish him, and he heads for Moscow in a desperate search for refuge. Votes: 2

There ought to be more grants that go to people in their late twenties and early thirties. That's a crucial age, although it's very hard to judge who is worth supporting and who is not. Looking back on my own life, I see that was the period when I was closest to giving up as a novelist and when I most needed some encouragement. Votes: 2

Freud was just a novelist. Votes: 0

God pity the poor novelist. Votes: 0

I am a novelist at heart. Votes: 0

The historian records, but the novelist creates. Votes: 0

Every novelist should possess a hermaphroditic imagination. Votes: 0

I just saw myself as a novelist. Votes: 0

I'm a novelist, period. An American novelist. Votes: 0

An urban novelist never minds a little decay. Votes: 0

Every Observer writer wants to be a novelist. Votes: 0

Edinburgh is a comfortable puddle for a novelist. Votes: 0

Curiosity is the prime requisite of the novelist. Votes: 0

The most original novelist now writing in English. Votes: 0

The novelist is frequently considered to be an impediment. Votes: 0

You become a serious novelist by living long enough. Votes: 0

Personally, I have never wished I were a male novelist. Votes: 0

I'm a novelist, not a social scientist or a commentator. Votes: 0

My temperament is not geared to that of a novelist. Votes: 0

A novelist can't be without a kimono and pen!(Shigure) Votes: 0

A novelist is a man who doesn't like his mother. Votes: 0

I thought I wanted to be a journalist or a novelist. Votes: 0

A novelist is a person who lives in other people's skins. Votes: 0

Life is a very bad novelist. It is chaotic and ludicrous. Votes: 0

My father was a screenwriter, but he was also a novelist. Votes: 0

Essential characteristic of the really great novelist: a Christ-like, all-embracing compassion. Votes: 0

As a novelist, I'm endlessly fascinated by human behavior and interactions. Votes: 0

I'm a novelist. Fortunately I don't have to rule the world. Votes: 0

I am a better novelist than a poet, playwright, or essayist. Votes: 0

The biggest downside to being a novelist is writing the novel. Votes: 0

It is the job of the novelist to touch the reader. Votes: 0

I stopped being an engaged journalist and became a disengaged novelist. Votes: 0

As an historical novelist "“ there are few jobs more retrospective. Votes: 0

The novelist teaches the reader to comprehend the world as a question, Votes: 0

A novelist needs to know his own strong points and weak points. Votes: 0

The novelist helps us to see things we might not notice otherwise. Votes: 0

The novelist must ground his work in faithful study of human nature. Votes: 0

The craft of the novelist does lie first of all in story-telling. Votes: 0

The real novelist, the perfectly simple human being, could go on, indefinitely imaging. Votes: 0

Every novelist should write something for children at least once in his lifetime. Votes: 0

Before I became a suspense novelist, I wrote romantic suspense as Alicia Scott. Votes: 0

A novelist is an elephant, but an elephant who must pretend to forget. Votes: 0

One more recent novelist to come along is Cormac McCarthy. Him, I like. Votes: 0

I'm a novelist, so I can't write about ideas unless they're attached to people. Votes: 0

By measuring individual human worth, the novelist reveals the full enormity of the State Votes: 0

I don't really consider myself a novelist, it just came out purely by accident. Votes: 0

Political novels are full of pitfalls, particularly for a novelist with strong political leanings. Votes: 0

For a novelist, it's kind of an onerous burden to represent an entire culture. Votes: 0

Every novelist has a different purpose-and often several purposes which might even be contradictory. Votes: 0

... the novelist is bound by the reasonable possibilities, not the probabilities, of his culture. Votes: 0

The novelist, quite rightly, fears the psychoanalyst as both an enemy and a usurper. Votes: 0

The novelist's intuition for the sacred differs from the translator's interrogation of the sacred. Votes: 0

Don't be a novelist --- be a statistician. Much more scope for the imagination. Votes: 0

I had thought of writing, actually, and that later on I'd be a novelist. Votes: 0

The novel, for me, was an accident. I really don't consider myself a novelist. Votes: 0

The great thing about being a novelist is that you organize your own day. Votes: 0

The passion for fact in a raw state is a peculiarity of the novelist. Votes: 0

The function of the novelist... is to comment upon life as he sees it. Votes: 0

Talents of the novelist: ... observation of character, analysis of emotion, people's feelings, personal relations ... Votes: 0

A novelist has a specific poetic license which also applies to his own life. Votes: 0

Whether he be an original or a plagiarist, man is the novelist of himself. Votes: 0

I started my career as a novelist. 'Veronica Mars' was first imagined as a novel. Votes: 0

I'm a very old-fashioned novelist. I write 19th-century novels, where a lot of rules apply. Votes: 0

Miss Austen had shown the infinite possibilities of ordinary and present things for the novelist. Votes: 0

To be a novelist, all I need is a pen and a piece of paper. Votes: 0

The pull of history has been a strong theme in my life as a novelist. Votes: 0

Lawrence Kelter is an exciting new novelist, who reminds me of an early Robert Ludlum. Votes: 0

I've always thought a novelist only has one character and that is himself or herself. Votes: 0

I hated being a novelist when I was 20 - I had nothing to write about. Votes: 0

I am not much of a researcher as a novelist; I write mainly from experience. Votes: 0

Well I'm not a novelist. I've only written one book and that is a memoir. Votes: 0

I'm a novelist, that's how I make my livelihood, and I concentrate on the novels. Votes: 0

I consider myself foremost a novelist with the intent of crafting stories that people will remember. Votes: 0

I don't think any novelist should be concerned with literature"¦literature should be left to essayists. Votes: 0

Being an unpublished novelist has about as much social acceptability as being a shopping bag lady. Votes: 0

Proust was the greatest novelist of the twentieth century, just as Tolstoy was in the nineteenth. Votes: 0

Lolita is famous, not I. I am an obscure, doubly obscure, novelist with an unpronounceable name. Votes: 0

My paternal grandfather was a failed novelist. He stacked boxes of rejected manuscripts in a closet. Votes: 0

A novelist is on the cusp between someone who knows everything and someone who knows nothing. Votes: 0

Just as the painter thinks with his brush and paints the novelist thinks with his story. Votes: 0

I do think there's some aspect of being a novelist that is a little crazy making. Votes: 0

For a novelist, the gaps in a story are as intriguing as material that still exists. Votes: 0

As a novelist, you have to be free. Books can't be an act of filial duty. Votes: 0

And then, as if written by the hand of a bad novelist, an incredible thing happened. Votes: 0

I believe that only poetry counts ... A great novelist is first of all a great poet. Votes: 0

I'm not a philosopher. I am the next thing to a jock, which is a novelist. Votes: 0

For years, I felt I was a novelist, but now I know I can write short fiction. Votes: 0

The business of the novelist is not to relate great events, but to make small ones interesting. Votes: 0

I'm not a novelist, I'm a storyteller. There is no art in what I do, no mystique. Votes: 0

I think that's the most important job of a novelist - to bring authority to their writing. Votes: 0

Where does any novelist pick up any character? For the most part, in town, to be sure. Votes: 0

I only became a novelist because I thought I had missed my chance to become a historian. Votes: 0

A novelist should not be too intelligent either, although... he may be permitted to be an intellectual. Votes: 0

As a novelist, I remain interested in the notion of a single reckless act and its consequences. Votes: 0

Yeah, I have the detail-obsessed, controlling personality of a novelist, but I somehow ended up writing plays. Votes: 0

The next time the novelist rings the bell I will not stir though the meeting-house burn down. Votes: 0

It's almost a sort of fairy story tale, just what a novelist would write about a discovery. Votes: 0

While the novelist is banging on his typewriter, the poet is watching a fly in the windowpane. Votes: 0

A woman filled with faith in the one she loves is the creation of a novelist's imagination. Votes: 0

I think thats the most important job of a novelist - to bring authority to their writing. Votes: 0

I am worrying about my country. I feel I have a responsibility as a novelist to do something. Votes: 0

How can a novelist achieve atonement when with her absolute power of deciding outcomes, she is also god? Votes: 0

The difference between a novelist and someone who tinkers around with writing is this: novelists finish their books. Votes: 0

I'm mostly a novelist these days, but I have written short stories in Fantasy, Science Fiction and horror. Votes: 0

Two things a novelist can do with a hat: Talk through it or pull a rabbit from it. Votes: 0

Expansion, that is the idea the novelist must cling to, not completion, not rounding off, but opening out. Votes: 0

Henry James would have been vastly improved as a novelist by a few whiffs of the Chicago stockyard. Votes: 0

I think of a designer as a processor of information — like a scriptwriter or a novelist. Votes: 0

I want to be a popular novelist who's also serious, or a serious novelist who's also very accessible. Votes: 0

A novelist is someone who sits around the house all day in his underwear, trying not to smoke. Votes: 0

I have a wonderful editor who believes in fiction and poetry. She herself is a novelist and poet. Votes: 0

I was writing from the time I was 12 years old, but I originally wanted to be a novelist. Votes: 0

The job of the novelist is to invent: to embroider, to color, to embellish, to make things up. Votes: 0

I'm a novelist at heart. How's that? And that's how I make my living, is I write novels. Votes: 0

And that singular anomaly, the lady novelist-- I don't think she'd be missed--I'm sure she'd not be missed! Votes: 0

As a novelist, I tend to know significantly more about my characters than I do about my friends. Votes: 0

To ask a novelist to talk about his novels is like asking somebody to cook about their dancing. Votes: 0

I think that if Mozart were alive today and decided to become a novelist, he would write humorous fantasy." Votes: 0

I think that if Mozart were alive today and decided to become a novelist, he would write humorous fantasy. Votes: 0

All my siblings became artists. One's a novelist, my brother is a painter, my sister was a costume designer. Votes: 0

In the compact between novelist and reader, the novelist promises to lie, and the reader promises to allow it. Votes: 0

The best novelist of my generation is an Italian living in Paris, still working and improving - Italo Calvino. Votes: 0

The greatest benefit we owe to the artist, whether painter, poet, or novelist, is the extension of our sympathies. Votes: 0

As a novelist, I ask of myself only that I tell the truth and that I tell it beautifully. Votes: 0

A novelist has to know enough about a subject to fool the passenger next to him on an airplane. Votes: 0

It is less the business of the novelist to tell us what happened than to show how it happened. Votes: 0

I'm a novelist. I think fiction is important or I wouldn't be doing it, but most of it's bad. Votes: 0

Nobody asks you to do this. The world out there is not panting after another novelist. We choose it. Votes: 0

I guess I've always been an aspiring novelist. I went to Princeton and wrote a novel for my thesis. Votes: 0

I'd be far too self-conscious and insecure if I suspected my editor might be a better novelist than I. Votes: 0

If you're a novelist, as I am in real life, you're usually so desperate for any kind of feedback. Votes: 0

If you only write when inspired, you may be a fairly decent poet, but you'll never be a novelist. Votes: 0

Being a novelist is hard for anyone - male or female. You don't get to quit your day job. Votes: 0

I would never have been a novelist without working as a psychologist...it was a great education in human nature. Votes: 0

Bigotry tries to keep truth safe in its hand with a grip that kills it. (Bengali poet and novelist, 1861-1941) Votes: 0

I realized that my identity as a novelist was private. Only I knew how much of a novelist I was! Votes: 0

I was a frustrated musician, frustrated designer, frustrated art director, frustrated novelist, right. I'd fail at all these different professions. Votes: 0

The essayist has to follow a certain intellectual pattern. The novelist has the advantage of using fantasy, of being subjective. Votes: 0

If the novelist isn't surprised by where his book ends up, he or she probably hasn't written anything worth remembering. Votes: 0

A novelist must preserve a childlike belief in the importance of things which common sense considers of no great consequence. Votes: 0

The novelist works neither to correct nor to condone, not at all to comfort, but to make what's told alive. Votes: 0

In a rough way the short story writer is to the novelist as a cabinetmaker is to a house carpenter. Votes: 0

Henry James claim that if you want to be a novelist you should be somebody on whom nothing is lost. Votes: 0

I would love to see young writers come out of college and know there is a possibility to be a novelist. Votes: 0

The materials of the novelist must be real; they must be gathered from the field of humanity by his actual observation. Votes: 0

A novelist who ranks with Proust , Kafka , Musil and his friend James Joyce as one of the enduring pillars of Modernism. Votes: 0

I always think the novelist should go to the culture's dark places and poke around. Pose a lot of hard questions. Votes: 0

I have tried very hard as a novelist to say, 'Novels are about individuals and especially larger than life individuals.' Votes: 0

Charlie Huston, who showran the first season [of Powers], is a novelist, and likes to internalize fiction as a novelist does. Votes: 0

Although some people think I am a romantic novelist I have always thought of myself as a rather gritty radical historian. Votes: 0

Sometimes writing a novel is not unlike having a baby. You'd have to ask a female novelist to compare the pain. Votes: 0

For me, as a beginning novelist, all other living writers form a control group for whom the world is a placebo. Votes: 0

I used to describe myself as a comic novelist, but my concerns seem to have darkened over the past few years. Votes: 0

As far as he can achieve it, readability is as important for the scientific writer as it is for the novelist. Votes: 0

The artist deals with what cannot be said in words. The novelist says in words what cannot be said in words. Votes: 0

If the novelist shares his or her problems with the characters, he or she is able to study his personal unconscious. Votes: 0

I am a huge fan of Alan Furst. Furst is the best in the business--the most talented espionage novelist of our generation. Votes: 0

Novels are fictions and therefore they tell lies, but through those lies every novelist attempts to tell the truth about the world. Votes: 0

The novelist is the person who spends a lot of his or her day thinking about the human drama and emotional complexity. Votes: 0

As a novelist, I tell stories and people give me money. Then financial planners tell me stories and I give them money. Votes: 0

Really, the novelist has the best casting since he doesn't have to cope with the actors and all the rest. -Alfred Hitchcock Votes: 0

The fact is that in this day and age I don't think any novelist can assume that a book will get attention. Votes: 0

Dostoevsky is such a bad writer it is hard to take him seriously as a novelist, though he is a wonderful philosopher. Votes: 0

I'm proud to be a crime novelist. What I've chosen is the best way to convey the questions I'm trying to raise. Votes: 0

I try very hard to be fair, and I look for ironies. In a way, I live on ironies as a novelist. Votes: 0

A movie will do in one second, with one image, what it will take a novelist at least a page to describe. Votes: 0

I'm a white, middle-class male who had a happy childhood in Ohio. The world does not need me to be a novelist. Votes: 0

There was never a good biography of a good novelist. There couldn't be. He is too many people if he's any good. Votes: 0

A historian may be an artist too, and a novelist is a historian, the preserver, the keeper, the expounder, of human experience. Votes: 0

Canada has one great novelist (Robertson Davies), which means it has one for every twenty-five million citizens - the world's highest ratio. Votes: 0

Listening is crucial for any novelist. Stories & ideas abound. We too often talk about ourselves & block out the richness others may offer. Votes: 0

A straight writer can write a gay novel and not worry about it, and a gay novelist can write about straight people. Votes: 0

For a novelist, a given historic situation is an anthropologic laboratory in which he explores his basic question: What is human existence? Votes: 0

To speak today of a famous novelist is like speaking of a famous cabinetmaker or speedboat designer. Adjective is inappropriate to noun. Votes: 0

I'm always determined that as a novelist I'm going to go out there and research my characters very thoroughly before I start writing. Votes: 0

I get work because I'm primarily a novelist but I've become script doctor. I can work back and forth between French and English. Votes: 0

Art is for [the Irish] inseparable from artifice: of that, the theatre is the home. Possibly, it was England made me a novelist. Votes: 0

Writing tends to be very deliberate. A novelist could probably run a military campaign with some success. They could certainly run a country. Votes: 0

I can't promise that every child with learning differences will become a novelist, but I do think all children can become lifelong readers. Votes: 0

I knew Id always be a second-rate academic, and I thought, Well, Id rather be a second-rate novelist or even a third-rate one. Votes: 0

I knew I'd always be a second-rate academic, and I thought, 'Well, I'd rather be a second-rate novelist or even a third-rate one'. Votes: 0

I am not an academic who happens to have written a novel. I am a novelist who happens to be quite good academically. Votes: 0

I never met anybody in my life who says, I want to be a critic. People want to be a fireman, poet, novelist. Votes: 0

Being called a 'bad citizen' is a compliment to a novelist, at least to my mind. That's exactly what we ought to do. Votes: 0

They can't yank a novelist like they can a pitcher. A novelist has to go the full nine, even if it kills him. Votes: 0

A novelist is, like all mortals, more fully at home on the surface of the present than in the ooze of the past. Votes: 0

I think of myself as a songwriter, a weaver of story and imagination in a way that a novelist might write a book. Votes: 0

The lesson you have to learn as novelist is how to be collaborative, and how to say, "I don't get to dictate this." Votes: 0

I wish people would think of me as a musician who writes novels, instead of a novelist who writes music on the side. Votes: 0

The novelist must be his own most harsh critic and also his own most loving admirer and about both he must say nothing. Votes: 0

The business of the poet and the novelist is to show the sorriness underlying the grandest things and the grandeur underlying the sorriest things. Votes: 0

I found it really disturbing to see a novelist writing a diatribe about Islam and Muslim radical extremists, blurring the distinction between the two. Votes: 0

If you write a screenplay that gets circulated, you have a bigger readership than any literary novelist. And it's an educated audience as well. Votes: 0

A novelist can never be his own reader, except when he is ridding his manuscript of syntax errors, repetitions, or the occasional superfluous paragraph. Votes: 0

I suppose I am a born novelist, for the things I imagine are more vital and vivid to me than the things I remember. Votes: 0

The novelist, he's not a philosopher, not a technician of spoken language. He's someone who writes, above all, and through the novel asks questions. Votes: 0

A novelist should make you realize nothing is stable. If you don't believe anything with robustness, you're doing something more radical than anything else. Votes: 0

I think it's restrictive to typecast myself as a novelist because I enjoy other forms of expression. I love literature and I love cinema. Votes: 0

Whatever fame a novelist my attain, it's always kind of an anonymous one. I can go anywhere, and no one knows who I am.... Votes: 0

Among the many problems which beset the novelist, not the least weighty is the choice of the moment at which to begin his novel. Votes: 0

I'm a successful novelist, and I've been a lucky one, so I don't want to cry the poor mouth. Writing has never been easy. Votes: 0

I'm a novelist at heart. My sole intention is to write the best novel possible. I don't think about the film potential at all. Votes: 0

Southern novelist Walker Percy writes in Love in the Ruins, We love those who know the worst of us and don't turn their faces away.6 Votes: 0

If you want to be a psychological novelist and write about human beings, the best thing you can do is keep a pair of cats. Votes: 0

If you tell a novelist, 'Life's not like that', he has to do something about it. The poet simply replies, 'No, but I am.' Votes: 0

Jane Austen was an extraordinary woman; to actually be able to survive as a novelist in those days - unmarried - was just unheard of. Votes: 0

The second person to write a story about a young boy and an escaped slave on the Mississippi wasn't a novelist, he was a typist. Votes: 0

Not since Lord of the Flies has a novelist written with such perceptiveness about the potential for harm that lurks within the innocence of childhood. Votes: 0

Historical fiction is actually good preparation for reading SF. Both the historical novelist and the science fiction writer are writing about worlds unlike our own. Votes: 0

You have to go out of your way as a suspense novelist to find situations where the protagonists are somewhat helpless and in real danger. Votes: 0

I think of myself now as a writer, although I wouldn't go as far as to say 'novelist' because that sounds like a Victorian person. Votes: 0

In effect I am not a novelist, but rather a failed essayist who started to write novels because he didn't know how to write essays. Votes: 0

The ancient historians gave us delightful fiction in the form of fact; the modern novelist presents us with dull facts under the guise of fiction. Votes: 0

A novelist has two lives-- a reading and writing life, and a lived life. he or she cannot be understood at all apart from this. Votes: 0

Salvation is an individual relationship with God. I've always considered myself to be a devotional poet, and I consider myself to be a devotional novelist. Votes: 0

I resist when someone calls me a novelist: it implies some kind of inherent superiority of the novel. I'm not a novelist, I'm a writer. Votes: 0

Horror writers can write about everything in the real world that a mainstream novelist can--plus the supernatural, which is the most fertile field for metaphor imaginable. Votes: 0

It is part of the novelist's convention not to mention soup and salmon and ducklings, as if soup and salmon and ducklings were of no importance... Votes: 0

That's what a good crime novelist - any good novelist - should do with you: play with your perceptions while showing you everything in plain sight. Votes: 0

Whether you're an unpublished novelist or a sixteen-time New York Times bestselling author, you can always improve your craft. You can always become a better writer. Votes: 0

The novelist must look on humanity without partiality or prejudice. His sympathy, like that of the historian, must be unbounded, and untainted by sect or party. Votes: 0

As a novelist, I'm incredibly lucky to make a living, but that doesn't mean that I don't lie awake at four o'clock in the morning, worrying. Votes: 0

Because I'm a novelist, I think in terms of structure. The way I keep going is through structure. It's what inspires me and pushes me through. Votes: 0

I don't like to read novels where the novelist tells me what to think about the situation and the characters. I prefer to discover for myself. Votes: 0

Reviewers do not read books with much care . . . their profession is more given to stupidity and malice and literary ignorance even than the profession of novelist. Votes: 0

We live in an age in which the imagination of the novelist is helpless against what he knows he is going to read in tomorrow's newspaper. Votes: 0

The novelist's ambition is not to do something better than his predecessors but to see what they did not see, say what they did not say. Votes: 0

I never see a novel as a film while I'm writing it. Mostly because novels and films are so different, and I'm such an internal novelist. Votes: 0

I think, if you want to grow a novelist, for that person to have a lot of boring time trying to entertain themselves is very important. Votes: 0

I never see a novel as a film while I'm writing it. Mostly because novels and films are so different, and I'm such an internal novelist Votes: 0

A book of great beauty and manically exquisite insight with a wild and deadly humor . . . The only American novelist who may conceivably be possessed by genius. Votes: 0

It is not the office of a novelist to show us how to behave ourselves; it is not the business of fiction to teach us anything. Votes: 0

The writer - more especially the novelist - who has not, at one moment or another, considered his publisher unworthy of him, has still to be conceived. Votes: 0

With the marketing pressures driving the book world today, it's much easier to get the author of a memoir on a television show than a serious novelist. Votes: 0

If this were fiction, could even the most brilliant novelist contrive to make credible so short a period in which pride had been subdued and prejudice overcome? Votes: 0

The economy of a novelist is a little like that of a careful housewife who is unwilling to throw away anything that might perhaps serve its turn. Votes: 0

He looks like a man.' 'How descriptive,' Susan said in a droll tone. 'Remind me never to advise you to seek work as a novelist. Votes: 0

The economy of a novelist is a little like that of a careful housewife who is unwilling to throw away anything that might perhaps serve its turn Votes: 0

A playwright must be his own audience. A novelist may lose his readers for a few pages; a playwright never dares lose his audience for a minute. Votes: 0

As a novelist, I have a somewhat higher soapbox to stand on than most people do when it comes to talking back to the merchants of fear. Votes: 0

I love novels, but I'm not a novelist. I'm just a dramatist, which means I write lines for actors. That's all I have ever wanted to do. Votes: 0

The idea of being a novelist is really romantic, but it's kind of the same as being president of the United States - it's not gonna happen. Votes: 0

A pornographic novelist is one who exploits the sexual instinct as a prostitute does. A legitimate sex novel elucidates it or brings out its poetry, tragedy, or comedy. Votes: 0

My role as a novelist is to explore ideas and imagination, and hopefully that will inspire people from my world to continue dreaming and to believe in dreams. Votes: 0

I wanted to write about the Korean War, but I had no entry into it that made the kind of sense it needs to make for a novelist. Votes: 0

Just as we bemoan the passing away of the Great Novel, a great novelist is likely to emerge, perhaps even from Denmark or Switzerland, to prove us wrong. Votes: 0

We may, without offending any laws of good taste, require of an architect, as we do of a novelist, that he should be not only correct, but entertaining. Votes: 0

I wrote four novels, but then I realized that the world didn't need me to be a novelist, but the world could use me as a nonfiction writer. Votes: 0

I don't get involved in casting, budgets, location or promotion. Just the script. And, of course, the promotional tour. Which is fine with me - I'm a novelist. Votes: 0

But here's the thing: what you do as a screenwriter is you sell your copyright. As a novelist, as a poet, as a playwright, you maintain your copyright. Votes: 0

Things that appear on the front page of the newspaper as 'fact' are far more dangerous than the games played by a novelist, and can lead to wars. Votes: 0

But here's the thing: what you do as a screenwriter is you sell your copyright. As a novelist, as a poet, as a playwright, you maintain your copyright Votes: 0

One of the writers I most admire is Hilary Mantel because in the middle of her career, she just changed paths entirely and became just a totally different novelist. Votes: 0

...speaking as a novelist myself, I know that members of our profession live in our imaginations as much or more as we inhabit what people call 'the real world'... Votes: 0

The movies are fun, but I'm a novelist. In many ways, screenwriting is much easier than writing novels. I find screenplays twenty times easier to write than a novel. Votes: 0

Lauren Kirshner creates a first-person narrator you never stop rooting for. . . . [Where We Have to Go] highlights Kirshner as a new novelist to watch. A very strong, original debut. Votes: 0

The contemporary American novelist benefits in a way from being ignored. It makes you angrier and makes you want to go into all of those places where you shouldnt. Votes: 0

The great European novel started out as entertainment, and every true novelist is nostalgic for it. In fact, the themes of those great entertainments are terribly serious-think of Cervantes! Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

I've been many kinds of writers in my career: novelist; tele-playwright; short story writer. As a high-school student, I wrote amateur pieces for fanzines, and I've written for Hollywood. Votes: 0

With a novelist, like a surgeon, you have to get a feeling that you've fallen into good hands - someone from whom you can accept the anesthetic with confidence. Votes: 0

The object of the novelist is to keep the reader entirely oblivious of the fact that the author exists - even of the fact he is reading a book. Votes: 0

I'd defend the right for any novelist to experiment with form or language, but if people don't take to it, don't react by making out that they are thick. Votes: 0

In high school, I wanted to be an actress. Until I got to college and took some creative writing courses. Then I decided I wanted to become a novelist. Votes: 0

The art of fiction does not begin until the novelist thinks of his story as a matter to be shown, to be so exhibited that it will tell itself. Votes: 0

A novelist has mad a fictional representation of life. I doing so, he has revealed to us more significance, it may be, than he could find in life itself. Votes: 0

I don't think I'm a natural novelist. Plot is definitely one of my weaker points. I've been working on it a long time, and it's not getting much better. Votes: 0

The novelist screws up his courage in order to invest another two or three years in another attempt to float a boat of original design upon an invented ocean. Votes: 0

I didn't have a dream of being a press secretary, I had a dream of being a playwright; I had a dream of being a novelist and a poet. Votes: 0

A great novelist must open the reader's heart, allow the reader to remember the vastness and glory -- and shame and shabbiness -- of what it is to be human. Votes: 0

The novelist can't successfully depict such horrifying reality. But she can, and must, try, to bear witness. There are many ways of doing this; the mode I prefer is indirect. Votes: 0

To survive, each sentence must have, at its heart, a little spark of fire, and this, whatever the risk, the novelist must pluck with his own hands from the blaze. Votes: 0

The memoirist, like the poet and the novelist, must engage the world, because engagement makes experience, experience makes wisdom, and finally it's the wisdom-or rather the movement toward it-that counts. Votes: 0

As a novelist, your impulse is toward multiplicity: multiple voices, multiple perceptions, multiple nuances, the ambiguity in human communication. Fiction really is the ultimate home for that sense of ambiguity. Votes: 0

In mid-20th-century America, it could be argued that the novelist still had the most claim of anyone to omniscience. Whatever he/she couldn't prove, he/she could gesture at. Votes: 0

A novelist's characters must be with him as he lies down to sleep, and as he wakes from his dreams. He must learn to hate them and to love them. Votes: 0

After I convinced them that I was a harmless novelist, I actually got them to give me a tour of the harem - which is usually off limits for tourists. Votes: 0

More than anything I am a novelist. But for me, an author's job is not only to create linguistically accomplished works. As an author I also want to stimulate discussion. Votes: 0

It's hard for me to believe that a shy, bespectacled college graduate like Brad Meltzer who's a novelist and a father is a really setting out to be weirdly misogynistic. Votes: 0

I think a novelist must be more tender with living or 'real' people. The moral imperative of having been entrusted with their story looms before you every day, in every sentence. Votes: 0

People have obsessions and fears and passions which they don't admit to. I think every character is interesting and has extremes. It's the novelist privilege to see how odd everyone is. Votes: 0

To be honest, I want readers to be wrung out. As a novelist, I don't have a political agenda or specific philosophy; I'm trying to create a gut-wrenching, intimate, memorable experience. Votes: 0

Sigmund Freud was a novelist with a scientific background. He just didn't know he was a novelist. All those damn psychiatrists after him, they didn't know he was a novelist either. Votes: 0

Even if there is endless documentation, it would be impossible to know what a man thought inside his own mind... This is where the novelist's creative imagination has to take over. Votes: 0

The novelist teaches the reader to comprehend the world as a question. There is wisdom and tolerance in that attitude. In a world built on sacrosanct certainties the novel is dead. Votes: 0

I was a novelist before I was a TV screenwriter. Actually, as a kid, I think I'd always wanted to be a writer, but never thought that I would be one. Votes: 0

Age could not wither nor custom stale her infinite monotony: in fact, neither Age nor Custom could do anything (as they said, their voices rising) with the American novelist Gertrude Johnson. Votes: 0

To be true to life, a novel must have an ending that is inevitable given the specific personalities of the characters involved. The novelist must not impose an ending upon them. Votes: 0

I think back on that day when 16-year-old me scribbled on some silly piece of paper for some long-forgotten high school career-day project that my dream job was 'romance novelist.' Votes: 0

The artist deals with what cannot be said in words. The artist whose medium is fiction does this in words. The novelist says in words what cannot be said in words. Votes: 0

Be born anywhere, little embryo novelist, but do not be born under the shadow of a great creed, not under the burden of original sin, not under the doom of Salvation. Votes: 0

I believe, in a funny way, the job of the novelist is to be out there on the fringes and speaking for an experience that has not really been spoken for. Votes: 0

The only way to be a novelist, to think that you can create something others will give themselves up to for a dozen hours or more, is to have psychotic self-belief. Votes: 0

In my view, the novelist has no right to express his opinions on the things of this world. In creating, he must imitate God: do his job and then shut up. Votes: 0

At the heart of the novelist's craft lies an optimism which thinks that the knowledge we gather from our everyday experience, if given proper form, can become valuable knowledge about reality. Votes: 0

Nicholas Sparks recently went on record as saying he is a greater novelist than Cormac McCarthy. This is true in the same sense that I am a better novelist than William Shakespeare. Votes: 0

I am a novelist. I traffic in subtleties, and my goal in writing a novel is to leave the reader not knowing what to think. A good novel shouldn't have a point. Votes: 0

Morality in the novel is the trembling instability of the balance. When the novelist puts his thumb in the scale, to pull down the balance to his own predilection, that is immorality. Votes: 0

To capture the human cost of fallen empire with all its horror and absurdity, Sheets offers the right combination: the political insight of a top reporter and the power of a novelist. Votes: 0

I am the luckiest novelist in the world. I was a first-time novelist who wasn't awash in rejection slips, whose manuscript didn't disappear in slush piles. I have had a wonderful time. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

The bad novelist constructs his characters; he directs them and makes them speak. The true novelist listens to them and watches them act; he hears their voices even before he knows them. Votes: 0

There seems almost a general wish of descrying the capacity and undervaluing the labour of the novelist, and of slighting the performances which have only genius, wit, and taste to recommend them. Votes: 0

When a novelist or screenwriter is looking for a subject, the element he's seeking is conflict. Conflict makes drama. Conflict produces great characters and memorable scenes. So war is a natural topic. Votes: 0

To present a scientific subject in an attractive and stimulating manner is an artistic task, similar to that of a novelist or even a dramatic writer. The same holds for writing textbooks. Votes: 0

For a novelist, no matter what, it's a complete work, even if it's not published. But if you write a screenplay, and it's not performed, then it's a sad and frustrating experience. Votes: 0

Back in the 1980s, when I was a lowly editorial assistant by day and trying to be a novelist by night, no god reigned so supreme as the god of literary prose. Votes: 0

It is fatal to know too much at the outcome: boredom comes as quickly to the traveler who knows his route as to the novelist who is over certain of his plot. Votes: 0

I'm a novelist: I spend a great part of my day pretending to myself that I'm in a different world, being a different person, faced with decisions I pretend I haven't created. Votes: 0

The true novelist is one who understands the work as a continuous poem, is a myth-maker, and the wonder of the art resides in the endless different ways of telling a story. Votes: 0

When finally I mustered the courage to tell a novelist friend that I was talking to editors about a biography, her reply was, 'Oh, that's okay. That's not a real book.' Votes: 0

Form is, in a way, death. A novelist's obligation is to break free from the form, even though he knows that this will also be seen as artificial and distanced from life. Votes: 0

TZETZE (or TSETSE) FLY, n. An African insect ("Glossina morsitans") whose bite is commonly regarded as nature's most efficacious remedy for insomnia, though some patients prefer that of the American novelist ("Mendax interminabilis"). Votes: 0

Dreadful is a poignant biography of a forgotten man who drank himself to death. It's a brilliant evocation of a self-hating gay novelist in the 1940s whom Gore Vidal once considered a rival. Votes: 0

A novel is based on evidence, + or -x, the unknown quantity being the temperament of the novelist, and the unknown quantity always modifies the effect of the evidence, and sometimes transforms it entirely. Votes: 0

You get spoiled as a novelist because you get to be the director and the editor, and you play all the parts, but as a screenwriter, you are a bit down the ladder. Votes: 0

The novelist is more a marathon runner than long-distance runner and the kind of courage it takes working in such isolation cannot be underestimated. I really respect my fellow writers on this front. Votes: 0

If you are a novelist of a certain type of temperament, then what you really want to do is re-invent the world. God wasn't too bad a novelist, except he was a Realist. Votes: 0

I truly believe that as a novelist, you cannot adequately describe the weather in England - the light, the dampness, the bitterness, the summer softness, and so on - without having experienced it. Votes: 0

No, Paul, I couldn't care less if you tell me made-up stories. Our lies reveal as much about us as our truths.' (Said to Paul by Elizabeth Costello, the interloping novelist-angel-inner voice). Votes: 0

If you are a novelist of a certain type of termperament, then what you really want to do is re-invent the world. God wasn't too bad a novelist except he was a Realist. Votes: 0

Sometimes I wonder why I'm a novelist right now. There is no definite career reason why I became a writer. Something happened, and I became a writer. And now I'm a successful writer. Votes: 0

A whim, a passing mood, readily induces the novelist to move hearth and home elsewhere. He can always plead work as an excuse to get him out of the clutches of bothersome hosts. Votes: 0

The novelist is condemned to wander all his life. Homeless and blind like Oedipus he wanders until death. And so let us protect the novelist and adore him, with pity, honor, and love." Votes: 0

As a novelist, I like the contained drama and complexity of the courtroom, though I don't watch those shows on TV. I prefer the hospital shows because I wanted to be a doctor. Votes: 0

Our father the novelist; my husband the poet. He belongs to the ages - just don't catch him at breakfast. Artists, celebrated for their humanity, they turn out to be scarcely human at all. Votes: 0

No poet or novelist wishes he was the only one who ever lived, but most of them wish they were the only one alive, and quite a number believe their wish has been granted. Votes: 0

To become a novelist, the most crucial thing one must do is read, read and read again - gradually you begin to think like a writer. Ideas are not found - they are shaped. Votes: 0

I'm a novelist, editor, short story writer. I also teach, and I freelance sometimes as an arts consultant. Most of my books have been published by Warner Books, now known as Grand Central Books. Votes: 0

A poet or novelist will invent interruptions to avoid long consecutive days at the ordained page; and of these the most pernicious are other kinds of writing -- articles, lectures, reviews, a wide correspondence. Votes: 0

The novelist's obligation to remake the sensuous texture of a vanished world is also the historian's. The strongest fiction writers often do deep research to make the thought and utterances of lost time credible. Votes: 0

Of Dickens' style it is impossible to speak in praise. It is jerky, ungrammatical, and created by himself in defiance of rules... No young novelist should ever dare to imitate the style of Dickens. Votes: 0

Reading a newspaper is like reading someone's letters, as opposed to a biography or a history. The writer really does not know what will happen. A novelist needs to feel what that is like. Votes: 0

I'm easily persuaded that a really good novelist who gets inside somebody else's head could be serving a valuable purpose. I enjoy satirical novels that take a wry, humorous, ironic look at modern life. Votes: 0

I always wanted to be a fiction writer, but I couldn't figure out how you could be a novelist and make any money, which continues to be a problem for novelists the world over. Votes: 0

Science fiction is a literary field crowded with strong opinions, and no SF novelist delivered himself more memorably of his views - on politics, sexuality, religion, and many other contentious topics - than Robert Heinlein. Votes: 0

To a novelist, fluidity is the ultimate good omen; suddenly difficult problems are simply solved, intractable structural knots loosen themselves, and you come upon the key without even recognizing that this is what you hold. Votes: 0

I think it's really boring, from the point of view of the novelist, to write about yourself. Tedious. But that's very hard to explain to people who really don't believe in the possibility of invention. Votes: 0

I could meet dreadful people and end up seeing the world through their eyes, seeing their frailties, their needs. You refer to yourself in order to understand other people. That's the novelist's gift, isn't it? Votes: 0

As a novelist you have just unlimited budget, total creative control. You really get to have your cake - all the cake - and then you can have a second cake if you wanted to. Votes: 0

The painter paints, the musician makes music, the novelist writes novels. But I believe that we all have some influence, not because of the fact that one is an artist, but because we are citizens. Votes: 0

I think the hardest part of writing is revising. And by that I mean the following: A novelist has to create the piece of marble and then chip away to find the figure in it. Votes: 0

No poet or novelist wishes he were the only one who ever lived, but most of them wish they were the only one alive, and quite a number fondly believe their wish has been granted. Votes: 0

I like the idea of being a novelist. I picture myself on the coast, the wind in my hair, horses galloping around me as I sit at my typewriter in the middle of a field... Votes: 0

In order for a long piece of work to engage a novelist over an extended period of time, it has to deal with questions that you find very important, that you're trying to work out. Votes: 0