Michel Faber Quotes

I don't like books that play to the gallery, but I've become more concerned with telling a story as clearly and engagingly as I can.

A good novel doesn't just transcend the boundaries of its target market - it knows nothing about target markets.

Writers are in the entertainment business, and it gives me lots of pleasure to entertain my readers.

I don't want to write books that are intellectually staggering if nobody's going to read them.

Our goal is to focus on the unique points of view of our show creators but make shows that have broad appeal.

If you write for the critics, only the critics will read you.

I honestly think I could sit down and write a show tonight that the critics would love, and I know it would be canceled within four weeks. I know what the critics love. We write and produce for people, not for critics.

I'm very conscious that I'm an entertainer. Something like 73 percent of my readers are college graduates, so you can't condescend to people. You've got to tell them a story that they will be willing to pay money to read.

I think that's a hallmark of a really good story that it has readers that it speaks to more than others.

I don't like to write rhetorically or get on a soapbox. I try to make the stuff multi-layered, so that it always has a life outside its social context. I don't believe that you can tell people anything; you can only draw them in.

I think that you have to keep the reader front and centre if you're going to write something that people are going to love and be entertained by.

Whatever I've worked on, I've always tried to make my writing personal. I think that's what makes my books somewhat different from what other scientists are doing. You have to tie concepts into everyday life, or they just won't be interesting for readers.

You can't visit readers where you think they are. You have to invite them home to where you are and try to lure them into your universe. That's the art of storytelling.

The main thing is to think strategically about what will engage your readers. Trust me when I tell you that few people are eager to read a story whose opening lines sound like a dissertation on giant bugs.

In the end, my reasons for moving down the timeline and introducing a new cast have more to do with keeping myself entertained, on the assumption that if I get bored, my readers are going to be even more bored.

I write what I'd like to read and just hope that, along the way, others might like to read them, too.

A novel that features real people is complicated, but in the end, that extra challenge is all for the good.

Ordering is difficult. It's like arranging pieces of music in a concert: What do you put first? What do you put after the intermission? I want the reader to be sort of surprised, to come to each story freshly.

I was always concerned with writing to my age at a particular moment. That was the way I would keep faith with the audience that supported me as I went along.

I would not have so many scripts being driven by demographics. The play's the thing - not the 18-35 year old male age group.

I try to tell a story that's good enough to win the right to integrate eternal themes into it. If it's poorly written or comes across as a sermon, then obviously you don't reach people, because they're aware that you're imposing something on a story that isn't innate to it.

I never wrote my books especially for children.

When I started to be a writer, I was not going to run the risk of boring you.

The readers are the ones who let us live our dreams. I try to write books which are really compelling - that you'd take on vacation and rather than going out, you'd read in your hotel room because you had to find out what happened. Hopefully that's what readers are responding to.

That's one of those things that will really hurt me personally, if I label a character or think about what it might do if it were to do well. I just try to do a good job with it.