Anna Quindlen Quotes

Both types of books - fiction and nonfiction - are a search for story. As a writer and a reader, there's nothing I crave more than a good story!

Warfare is the father of all good things, it is also the father of good prose!

When a novelist or screenwriter is looking for a subject, the element he's seeking is conflict. Conflict makes drama. Conflict produces great characters and memorable scenes. So war is a natural topic.

To hold a pen is to be at war.

You know, we love stories and we love narrative; we love to get lost in an author's world.

All that non-fiction can do is answer questions. It's fiction's business to ask them.

It's hard to write a war story without thinking about the 'Iliad.' Because the 'Iliad' knows everything about war.

No, the thing is, we all love storytelling, and as a writer you get to tell stories all the time.

I like novelists who can create other interesting worlds.

I love books, and I love to read, and I had ideas for books that I thought would be neat to read.

All novels are about crime. You'd be hard pressed to find any novel that does not have an element of crime. I don't see myself as a crime novelist, but there are crimes in my books. That's the nature of storytelling, if you want to reflect the real world.

It certainly seems as though a great majority of genre is conflict-focused and, not only that, but focused on large physical conflicts.

I'm a novelist, that's how I make my livelihood, and I concentrate on the novels.

As for writing about temptation, there's no drama without temptation, and no novel without drama.

A well-written novel, the most immersive of all forms of storytelling, should command your full attention and belief.

I always wrote - not about war, necessarily, but I always wrote stories. I tried to write while I was in Iraq. It's not really - I didn't do a very good job, and not about war.

For me, movies and television are interesting because they are the dominant storytelling form of our time. My first love will always be fiction, and especially novels, but I'm a writer... I write poetry and essays and criticism and I'd love to write a whole play, and sometimes I even write scripts.

War, I have always said, forces men to change their standards, regardless of whether their country has won or lost.

I am not a fan of books.

When I set out to write 'Sanctus,' all I wanted to do was craft a piece of high quality entertainment.

When I want to read a novel, I write one.

I've just always been very interested in story above all.

To write a story is to create a world of your own.

I like very much to read novels. I like very much some writers.

Drama is always conflict. Conflict either comes from within or without. The thing that makes a show different is the conflict manifests itself both internally and externally.