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4391 Novelist Quotes

I don't understand how any good art could fail to be political.

Don't Understand How Good
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Good fiction creates empathy. A novel takes you somewhere and asks you to look through the eyes of another person, to live another life.

Good Novels Fiction Creates
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Literature sucks you into another psyche. So the creation of empathy necessarily influences how you'll behave to other people.

Literature Sucks You Into
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Every time I write a new novel about something sombre and sobering and terrible I think, 'oh Lord, they're not going to want to go here'.

Every Time Write New
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I can count all the ways in which being a mother has enriched my understanding of the world, of character, my sense of the future and my attachment to it.

Count All The Way
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I've always seen the world through the eyes of a scientist. I love the predictable outcomes that science gives us, the control over the world that that can render.

Always Seen The World
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I grew up aware of all the people I depended on and who depended on me.

Grew Up Aware All
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I suppose that is my central obsession. What we owe to society, what we owe to ourselves.

Suppose That My Central
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At home, growing up, we weren't really poor. We had everything we needed, we just didn't have what we wanted.

Home Growing Up Weren't
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I used to think religion was just more of the same thing. Dump responsibility on the big guy. Now I see an importance in that. It's a relief to accept that not everything is under your control.

Used Think Religion Just
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Readers of fiction read, I think, for a deeper embrace of the world, of reality. And that's brave. I never get over being thankful for that - for the courage of my readers.

Readers Fiction Read Think
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My morning begins with trying not to get up before the sun rises. But when I do, it's because my head is too full of words, and I just need to get to my desk and start dumping them into a file.

Morning Begins With Trying
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It's a funny thing: people often ask how I discipline myself to write. I can't begin to understand the question. For me, the discipline is turning off the computer and leaving my desk to do something else.

It's Funny Thing People
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For me, writing time has always been precious, something I wait for and am eager for and make the best use of. That's probably why I get up so early and have writing time in the quiet dawn hours, when no one needs me.

For Me Writing Always
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Every time I step onto an airplane, I turn to the right and take a good, hard stare into the maw of the engine. I don't know what I'm looking for. I just do it.

Every Time Step Onto
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Motherhood is so sentimentalised and romanticised in our culture. It's practically against the law to say there are moments in the day when you hate your children. Everyone actually has those moments.

Motherhood So Sentimentalised Romanticism
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I love developing children as characters. Children rarely have important roles in literary fiction - they are usually defined as cute or precious, or they create a plot by being kidnapped or dying.

Love Developing Children Characters
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After 'The Poisonwood Bible' was published, several people believed that my parents were missionaries, which could not be further from the truth.

After Poisonous Bible Was
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Most every book I bring into the world is like birthing a baby; it's a lot of effort!

Most Every Book Bring
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The first sentence of a book is a promise.

First Sentence Book Promise
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I live in a rural part of Virginia surrounded by farms and farmers.

Live Rural Part Virginia
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Dying is not a solution.. I want to live with You..!”

Dying Solution Live
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“Imagination is the other end of Reality.”
Imagination End Reality
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“If Allah has willed it that way... He must have better plans for you child...”

Allah Willed Better Child
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“Such is the great nature of man, it resides the true face beneath a glittering masquerade.”

Great Man Reside Beneath
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“Do you know which is the greatest epic till date?”

You Greatest Epic Date
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“You will breathe throughout your life, every moment of it, but an opportunity like this comes once in a lifetime, and not even to everyone. Go for it!”
Breathe Life Moment Opportunity
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“Destiny is always a doorstep away, if we know to move in the right direction.”

Destiny Doorstep Move Direction
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“You have to let go of memories that are holding on to you in order to make space for the ones that are waiting to enter your life. You are blocking your future by sticking to the past in your present.”

Memories Holding Space Life
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“I am no Patriot for I try to breathe in with the steadfast belief that my country is the Earth and my religion is Humanism.”

Patriot Breathe Steadfast Belief
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On the whole, life is unfair in the way it works out. It is a game played without an umpire!

Whole Life Unfair Works
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An absolutely necessary part of a writer's equipment, almost as necessary as talent, is the ability to stand up under punishment, both the punishment the world hands out and the punishment he inflicts upon himself.

Ability Absolutely Almost Both
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Every novelist has a different purpose - and often several purposes which might even be contradictory.

Contradictory Different Even Every
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I am forced to say that I have many fiercer critics than myself.
Am Critics Forced I Am
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A writer has to live with a sense of honor.

Honor Live Sense Writer
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All writers are the same - they forget a thousand good reviews and remember one bad one.
All Writers Bad Bad One Forget
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I reach my readers regardless of what the critics have written.

Critics Reach Readers Regardless
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My views naturally have mellowed. Most of the critics have been more or less nice to me.

Been Critics Less Me
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Posterity makes the judgments. There are going to be a lot of surprises in store for everybody.
Everybody Going Judgments Lot
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The romantic idea is that everybody around a writer must suffer for his talent. I think a writer is a citizen of humanity, part of his nation, part of his family. He may have to make some compromises.

Around Citizen Compromises Everybody
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When I started out in the early 1930s, there were a great many magazines that published short stories. Unfortunately, the short-story market has dwindled to almost nothing.

1930s Almost Almost Nothing Early
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Writers of fiction, when they begin, are more likely to try the short form.

Begin Fiction Form Likely
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Writing for the theater, you find yourself living a nocturnal life.
Find Life Living Nocturnal
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You have to expect the raps when you have achieved popularity as a writer.

Achieved Expect Popularity Writer
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You must avoid giving hostages to fortune, like getting an expensive wife, an expensive house, and a style of living that never lets you aford the time to take the chance to write what you wish.

Avoid Chance Expensive Fortune
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If you're young enough, any kind of writing you do for a short period of time is a marvelous apprenticeship.

Any Apprenticeship Enough Kind
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My attitudes have changed, but somebody would have to read all my books to find out how they have.
Attitudes Books Changed Find
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I imagine that my characters have become much more complicated than when I first began, which would be normal.

Become Began Characters Complicated
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I'm not as hopeful as I was when I was young.

Hopeful When Was Young
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Kennedy was a man who liked writers and even I got invited to the White House.

Even Got House Invited
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