Quotes Tagged "novels"

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

One of the most important things you can do on this earth is to let people know they are not alone.

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.

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.

Life is painful and disappointing. It is useless, therefore, to write new realistic novels. We generally know where we stand in relation to reality and don’t care to know any more.

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.

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

All the wrong things in life will make sense at the write time.

Its not over when the curtains come down, its over when YOU choose not to perform anymore.

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

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

I ran across an excerpt today (in English translation) of some dialogue/narration from the modern popular writer, Paulo Coelho in his book: Aleph.(Note: bracketed text is mine.)... 'I spoke to three scholars,' [the character says 'at last.'] ...two of them said that, after death, the [sic (misprint, fault of the publisher)] just go to Paradise. The third one, though, told me to consult some verses from the Koran. [end quote]' ...I can see that he's excited. [narrator]' ...Now I have many positive things to say about Coelho: He is respectable, inspiring as a man, a truth-seeker, and an appealing writer; but one should hesitate to call him a 'literary' writer based on this quote. A 'literary' author knows that a character's excitement should be 'shown' in his or her dialogue and not in the narrator's commentary on it. Advice for Coelho: Remove the 'I can see that he's excited' sentence and show his excitement in the phrasing of his quote.(Now, in defense of Coelho, I am firmly of the opinion, having myself written plenty of prose that is flawed, that a novelist should be forgiven for slipping here and there.)Lastly, it appears that a belief in reincarnation is of great interest to Mr. Coelho ... Just think! He is a man who has achieved, (as Leonard Cohen would call it), 'a remote human possibility.' He has won lots of fame and tons of money. And yet, how his preoccupation with reincarnation—none other than an interest in being born again as somebody else—suggests that he is not happy!

A novel must show how the world truly is, how characters genuinely think, how events actually occur. A novel should somehow reveal the true source of our actions.

The moon will guide you through the night with her brightness, but she will always dwell in the darkness, in order to be seen.

Marriage is a partnership, not a democracy.

Semua orang pernah patah hati. All you have to do is move on.

Ivanov: And this whole romance of ours is commonplace and trite: he lost heart, and he lost his way. She came along, strong and brave in spirit, and gave him an helping hand. That's all very well and plausible in novels, but in life... Sasha: In life it's the same. Ivanov: I see you have a fine understanding of life!

The trees are bedecked with snow, the air is perfumed; how sweet, how dark the sultry fragrance. Forever hypnotising, always haunting. I want to inhale the fragrance of your skin, drink from your open mouth.

من بين كل البشر سيجمعك القدر بأحدهم.. ليأتي حكم قلبك بعد ذلك.. سيولد بينكم ما يسمى بالحب.. لا مجال للفرار فقلبك قد اختار!! ومن هنا ستبدأ الحكاية.. بدايات جميلة ونهايات حزينة!! أو بدايات حزينة ونهايات جميلة!! حب ينتهي قبل أن يبدأ!! و حب يستمر حتى نهاية الأعمار!! أنت من ستختار وبيدك القرار.. فأحسن الاختيار.