All Quotes By Tag: Novels

“If you only write when inspired, you may be a fairly decent poet, but you’ll never be a novelist.”

“Writing fiction is the act of weaving a series of lies to arrive at a greater truth.”

“Some stories have to be written because no one would believe the absurdity of it all.”

“A novel is never anything but a philosophy expressed in images. And in a good novel the philosophy has disappeared into the images.”

“It was only after two years’ work that it occurred to me that I was a writer. I had no particular expectation that the novel would ever be published, because it was sort of a mess. It was only when I found myself writing things I didn’t realise I knew that I said, ‘I’m a writer now.’ The novel had become an incentive to deeper thinking. That’s really what writing is—an intense form of thought.”

“Find the things that matter, and hold on to them, and fight for them, and refuse to let them go.”

“You don’t read Gatsby, I said, to learn whether adultery is good or bad but to learn about how complicated issues such as adultery and fidelity and marriage are. A great novel heightens your senses and sensitivity to the complexities of life and of individuals, and prevents you from the self-righteousness that sees morality in fixed formulas about good and evil.”

“I like shape very much. A novel has to have shape, and life doesn’t have any. ”

“Romance novels are birthday cake and life is often peanut butter and jelly. I think everyone should have lots of delicious romance novels lying around for those times when the peanut butter of life gets stuck to the roof of your mouth.”