Quotes by Novelists Expansion, that is the idea the novelist must cling to, not completion, not rounding off, but opening out. E. M. Forster novelists writing ideas 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. E. L. Doctorow novelists games war People in a novel can be understood completely by the reader, if the novelist can be understood completely by the reader, if the novelist wishes; their inner as well as their outer life can be exposed. E. M. Forster novelists wish people It is never possible for a novelist to deny time inside the fabric of his novel: he must cling, however lightly, to the thread of his story, he must touch the interminable tapeworm, otherwise he becomes unintelligible, which, in his case, is a blunder. E. M. Forster novelists stories time 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. E. M. Forster novelists sometimes fiction It is the function of the novelist to reveal the hidden life at its source: to tell us more about Queen Victoria than could be known, and thus to produce a character who is not the Queen Victoria of history. E. M. Forster novelists queens character Historians tell the story of the past, novelists the story of the present. Edmond de Goncourt novelists stories past It is increasingly clear that the fate of the universe will come to depend more and more on individuals as the bungling of bureaucracy permeates every corner of our existence. Edna O'Brien individual fate novelists I was once doing a question and answer period with the novelist Jane Smiley in a bookstore and someone asked us what our processes were and Jane said hers and then I said mine and Jane said, "Well, if I had a student like that I'd force him never to write like that again because you could never write a novel in the way that you write poetry." Edward Hirsch bookstores novelists writing I would like to spend the rest of my days in a place so silent–and working at a pace so slow–that I would be able to hear myself living. Elizabeth Gilbert novelists pace would-be It is the job of the novelist to touch the reader. Elizabeth George novelists reader jobs But in general, for the purposes of most novelists, the number of objects genuinely necessary for. . .describing a scene will be found to be very small. Elizabeth Bowen novelists purpose numbers The novelist's--any writer's--object is to whittle down his meaning to the exactest and finest possible point. What, of course, isfatal is when he does not know what he does mean: he has no point to sharpen. Elizabeth Bowen novelists doe mean The craft of the novelist does lie first of all in story-telling. Elizabeth Bowen novelists writing lying Possibly the Creator did not make the world chiefly for the purpose of providing studies for gifted novelists; but if He had done so, we can scarcely imagine that He could have offered anything much better in the way of material. Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward novelists purpose way The thing I love about Dickens is the omniscient, omnipotent narrator, and the great confidence of the narrator, which marks 19th-century novelists in general and Dickens in particular. Elizabeth Gilbert narrators things-i-love novelists I suppose I am a born novelist, for the things I imagine are more vital and vivid to me than the things I remember. Ellen Glasgow novelists imagination writing I'm really aware that in fiction, women are pretty much equal. There's a lot of very successful women novelists. Not so much [for women writers working] in film. Emma Donoghue novelists successful fiction You must be prepared to work always without applause. Ernest Hemingway novelists work appreciation Was our life nothing more than a sequence of anonymous screams in a desert of indifferent stars? Ernesto Sabato novelists stars life «23456789101112»