Ariel Levy Quotes

Only a reader can become a writer. Develop a lively intellect and the ability to become interested in anything, no matter how mundane it might seem at first. Look for the story. Develop an eye for detail. Feed your mind and your brain: learn as much as you can about everything you can.

Novelists should be like scientists, dissecting the cadaver.

I wouldn't like to be a character in one of my books!

I knew I would read all kinds of books and try to get at what it is that makes good writers good. But I made no promises that I would write books a lot of people would like to read.

I had the most incredible English and literature teachers in school, and it really influenced my love of storytelling. It's what made me excited to study journalism in college. I love editorials and documentaries. All of that came from being given the opportunity to lose myself in good writing when I was a kid.

As a writer, one is busy with archaeology.

I came up with new leads for game stories by being observant and clever, by using the many gifts of the English language to intrigue and hook a reader.

Stephen King has inspired me with his humor and honesty, and his admonition that the author's job is to tell the truth.

I'm a novelist. I'm not a crusader, and I'm not an editorial writer. And I'm not writing fiction to convince anybody of anything.

Since childhood, I wrote a lot of fiction, a lot of stories, but I most loved writing essays.

My writing of fiction comes under a very general heading of those teachers, critics, scholars who like to try their own hand once or twice in their lives.

Like most writers, I read deeply into the genre in which I write.

I am a writer. Being critical is a writer's responsibility.

There isn't any distinction between a reader and a writer - reading is so much a part of it.

I learned that lesson a long time ago. When you write popular fiction you're going to get bashed by critics.

I've always enjoyed writing, I graduated with a degree in English; I've done bits of journalism.

You know, as a writer, I'm more of a listener than a writer, cuz if I hear something I will write it down.

A good writer is always a people watcher.

A writer is not a confectioner, a cosmetic dealer, or an entertainer.

My job is to put words together and tell a story. If that doesn't work for you, it's not a war crime.

As a writer, I've always been interested in others.

Those of us who write spend our entire lives in an endless English class.

Not everyone realises that to write a really good piece of journalism is at least as demanding intellectually as the achievement of any scholar.

I write to relieve an intellectual itch. I stumble across a hitherto neglected set of events, transformations, characters, or source materials from the past, and they nag at me until I make sense of them in words. But I also write to seduce and to make my readers think.

You don't have to go fight bulls in Spain like Hemingway to write something great, or go off to war. It's right under your nose.