Colleen McCullough Quotes

I think that's what fiction writing is actually all about. It's about trying to solve problems in creative ways.

I've tried very hard and I've never found any resemblance between the people I know and the people in my novels.

We have that illusion that we are 'deciding' what to make a character do, in order to 'convey our message' or something like that. But, at least in my experience, you are often more like a river-rafting guide who's been paid a bonus to purposely steer your clients into the roughest possible water.

When I write fiction, I have the illusion of being able to control these fictional worlds and these characters, and to make them say what I want them to say. Of course, the problem is that it is an illusion, and by the end of it you realize that you're not in control of it at all; the characters have taken over, and they're driving the vehicle.

As much as I really like the screenwriting thing, the novel is where the author has so much control.

I began to ask two questions while I was reading a book that excited me: not only what was going to happen next, but how is this done? How is it that these words on the page make me feel the way I'm feeling? This is the line of inquiry that I think happens in a child's mind, without him even knowing he has aspirations as a writer.

I'm very involved in the writing on every level.

I think anything goes in fiction as long as it fits within the interior logic of the work itself and is presented in a disciplined manner.

When I see things in the world that leap out at me, I want to make use of them in fiction. Maybe every writer does that. It just depends on what you claim or appropriate as yours.

I would never make up a character who didn't exist or an event that didn't transpire. If you're a real writer, you have other tools in your toolbox to build drama.

Of course, all writers draw upon their personal experiences in describing day-to-day life and human relationships, but I tend to keep my own experiences largely separate from my stories.

There are many reasons why novelists write, but they all have one thing in common - a need to create an alternative world.

It's all about letting the story take over.

When the characters are really alive before their author, the latter does nothing but follow them in their action, in their words, in the situations which they suggest to him.

In terms of fiction, I'd rather go out and have a good time than read a book about someone having a good or bad time.

Especially when I write, I want to get out of people's heads and have them speak and have them get dressed and have them go to work.

Successful fiction does not need to be validated by 'real life'; I cringe whenever a writer is asked how much of a novel is 'real'.

I learned to write fiction the way I learned to read fiction - by skipping the parts that bored me.

I like going back and writing fiction.

My temperament is not geared to that of a novelist.

One of the more depressing things about reading your fiction 25 years later, or 10 years later, is you realize the only things going on are things you made go on. Strange and interesting and new and wonderful things don't happen. It's the book you wrote; that's all.

All of my novels are seeded in real life events, and 'The Wreckage' is no different.

I didn't have any particular talent for fiction. I took a class in college.

In fiction, the reader will make jumps with you. If you can make the reader make that leap with you, it's a thrilling moment for everyone.

Fiction and nonfiction, for me, involve very different processes.