Khaled Hosseini Quotes

I first tried a novel when I was 14. First finished one when I was 16. First started working on stuff that had a chance of being salable in my early 20s, then didn't write much fiction at all because I was in grad school.

Writing a novel is a lot like reading one.

I've been writing for a long time. I sat down to write my first novel in the middle of March of 1982.

'The Secret Life of Bees' was my first novel, so I had no process. I was flying by the seat of my pants, as they say, trying to understand how I, as a novelist, would work with story.

At the age of seventeen, I decided I would spend my life writing fiction. I didn't know what this entailed, exactly - a room, I supposed. A room and books and paper and solitude.

I didn't really start to write until I was almost 30, and I started with the short stories.

What I like about writing novels is that I'm in my own world for nine months.

On the whole, stories don't write themselves.

Ironically, writing a novel is not a way to sort out your confusion.

I always wanted to write. While I was on a long surf trip, supporting myself with various day jobs, I was working hard on a novel. My third novel, in fact.

The older I get and the more fiction I write, the more I outline, the more I think about plot before I dive in and plunge too far.

Writing is my number one passion. I've written two novels. I've written a screenplay. I also write short stories and poetry.

I finish the book so I can see how it's going to end. I write that first sentence, and if it's the right first sentence, it leads to the right second sentence and three years later you have a 500-page manuscript, but it really is like going on a trip, going on a journey. It's a voyage.

I'm writing books. They're still a mix of fact and fiction and will continue to be. I think it's an interesting place to work.

I mostly write short stories. They are best written in a continuous creative process. You have a feel of immediacy.

A novel is achieved with hard work, the short story with inspiration.

You never learn how to write a novel. You just learn how to write the novel that you're writing.

When you write a novel you have to live with the characters for a long time. So I prefer short stories. I never wrote anything more than 250 pages.

I always wrote. I've written stories since I was 9. We didn't have a computer at home, but my aunt Magda had one. Whenever I'd go to her place, I was in the basement working on her computer, writing stories.

The novel, for me, was an accident. I really don't consider myself a novelist.

In my younger days, I was trying to write sophisticated prose and fantastic stories.

I took two years away from making films to write a novel.

A novel usually takes me two years. A year to research and plan and dream. Then a year to write.

I started writing because I wanted to write scripts, but I wasn't very good at it. Then I started writing short stories, sort of as treatments for the film scripts, and I found I enjoyed writing short stories far more than I enjoyed writing film scripts. Then the short stories got longer and longer and suddenly, I had novels.

Well, to be honest I think I'm a better short story writer than a novelist. Novels I find very hard, hours and hours, weeks and weeks, of conscious thought - whereas short stories slip out painlessly in a few days.