V. S. Naipaul Quotes

I think that as I continue to write, my writing I hope will become more controversial and more provocative.

I don't want to walk in the middle. I want people to read what I write and feel strongly about it. If, at some point, whatever I am doing is failing to elicit a response, whether it's very positive or very negative, then I am going to stop doing it.

Try writing a book, dude. That's difficult.

Of course, there are those critics - New York critics as a rule - who say, 'Well, Maya Angelou has a new book out and of course it's good but then she's a natural writer.' Those are the ones I want to grab by the throat and wrestle to the floor because it takes me forever to get it to sing. I work at the language.

Many fiction writers write for the critics or for themselves; they forget the common reader. I never do. I don't think journalism clashes with my fiction; on the contrary, it helps enormously.

The true function of a writer is to produce a masterpiece and no other task is of any consequence.

If I had simply wanted to trade on an insult to Islam, I could have done it in a sentence rather than writing a 250,000-word novel, a work of fiction.

It's hard to write an Evan Hunter novel because I really am starting from scratch. I'm assuming a new voice each time. The McBain voice is set.

You can't write my types of books without hurting someone.

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

To me, writing an ongoing series feels like driving a freight train downhill. All you can do is steer and pray.

I wanted to see if I could write a good book.

Ah, well, I have no talent for nonfiction, that's my problem.

Mr. Henry James writes fiction as if it were a painful duty.

Real novelists, those we admire, those we consider timeless in their language and character and scene, those who receive accolades for inventive language and form, have writing lives we imagine in specific ways.

Writing is a struggle no matter what the genre.

If you want to be noticed, attack somebody.

I have never begun a novel which wasn't going to stretch me further than I had ever stretched before.

I've heard some writers say things like, 'Well, I'm a professional writer. I only start books I know I can finish.' I look at it maybe the other way: I only want to write books I'm not sure I can write.

I've probably written some books - I know I've written some books that were more interesting to me than to a large audience, but that was mostly when I was first getting started in academia and writing for a narrow audience.

I like antagonizing the audience, poking at them.

My scripts, they're pretty serious. I basically just describe stuff. I don't put too many notes and letters to the editors. But when I wrote 'KGBLT,' in parentheses I wrote, 'Well this is the best thing I've ever written. It will all be downhill from here. I'm so sorry for the rest of my career.'

I want to be embraced by the audience, but it's fun to stir up the pot.

I want to be a better writer. I want to learn and grow, to know how to tell stories in a different and more challenging way. I've learned it doesn't get easier each time. It actually gets harder.

I am a novelist through and through.