#novelist

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. ↗

— Flannery O'Connor

#bad #bad manners #because #better #condition

A couple years ago, the novelist Russell Banks told me he was reading the ancient Greek historian Herodotus. I asked why. He said, 'Because I've always wanted to and am tired of having my reading assigned.' I thought it was a marvelous declaration of independence. ↗

— Richard Russo

#always #am #ancient #asked #assigned

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

— Vita Sackville-West

#begin #beset #choice #his #least

I am a better novelist than a poet, playwright, or essayist. ↗

— Jose Saramago

#better #essayist #i #i am #novelist

It's the duty of all novelists, all painters, all musicians, all people who try to make art move: to look for something they feel authentically, without paying attention to styles. ↗

— Nathalie Sarraute

#attention #duty #feel #look #make

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

— Seth Graham-Smith

#big #book #going #guy #i

I put it to you that there are no British poets, there are no British novelists. I have heard myself described as one, but I think really I'm an English novelist; there are Scottish poets and Scottish novelists. ↗

— Ian Mcewan

#described #english #heard #i #i think

On every page, confidence fights with self-doubt. Every sentence is an act of faith. Why would anybody want to do it? ↗

— David Morrell

#novelist #purpose #questions #writer #writing

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

— Vladimir Nabokov

#home #like #more #mortals #novelist

You say that you hope I will be recognized as the best novelist of my generation. I want you to know now and know completely that that would mean to me absolutely nothing. ↗

— Jean Stafford

#absolutely nothing #best #completely #generation #hope