Novelist Quotes

The only reason for being a professional writer is that you can’t help it.

You have to be slightly innocent to be a novelist. You can't have too much nous. It gets in the way, somehow

Even now, my ideal for writing fiction is to put Dostoevsky and Chandler together in one book. That’s my goal.

[My wife] is my first reader, every time I write a book. I rely on her. She’s a kind of partner to me. It’s like Scott Fitzgerald—for him, Zelda was the first reader.

I’m not intelligent. I’m not arrogant. I’m just like the people who read my books. I used to have a jazz club, and I made the cocktails and I made the sandwiches. I didn’t want to become a writer—it just happened. It’s a kind of gift, you know, from the heavens. So I think I should be very humble.

I don’t like the realistic style, myself. I prefer a more surrealistic style. But with Norwegian Wood, I made up my mind to write a hundred percent realistic novel. I needed that experience.

I think a writer’s life is the ideal life. I can never understand these fellows like Evelyn Waugh who did not always have the idea of being a writer. I always wanted to be a writer.

For God's sake, we're surrounded by novelists!