Famous quotes by Novelists

"It's a shame that the only thing a man can do for eight hours a day is work. He can't eat for eight hours; he can't drink for eight hours; he can't make love for eight hours. The only thing a man can do for eight hours is work"

William Faulkner, Novelist

William Faulkner

"I decline to accept the end of man"

William Faulkner, Novelist

William Faulkner

"A mule will labor ten years willingly and patiently for you, for the privilege of kicking you once"

William Faulkner, Novelist

William Faulkner

"The bow cannot always stand bent, nor can human frailty subsist without some lawful recreation"

Miguel de Cervantes, Novelist

Miguel de Cervantes

"Every man is as heaven made him, and sometimes a great deal worse"

Miguel de Cervantes, Novelist

Miguel de Cervantes

"Too much sanity may be madness and the maddest of all, to see life as it is and not as it should be"

Miguel de Cervantes, Novelist

Miguel de Cervantes

"All water has a perfect memory and is forever trying to get back to where it was"

Toni Morrison, Novelist

Toni Morrison

"Those who prepared for all the emergencies of life beforehand may equip themselves at the expense of joy"

E. M. Forster, Novelist

E. M. Forster

"Life is easy to chronicle, but bewildering to practice"

E. M. Forster, Novelist

E. M. Forster

"I don't know half of you, half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you, half as well as you deserve"

J. R. R. Tolkien, Novelist

J. R. R. Tolkien

"A box without hinges, key, or lid, yet golden treasure inside is hid"

J. R. R. Tolkien, Novelist

J. R. R. Tolkien

"When did the future switch from being a promise to a threat?"

Chuck Palahniuk, Novelist

Chuck Palahniuk

"There is one, knows not what, sweet mystery about this sea, whose gently awful stirrings seem to speak of some hidden soul beneath"

Herman Melville, Novelist

Herman Melville

"Andy Warhol is the only genius I've ever known with an I.Q. of 60"

Gore Vidal, Novelist

Gore Vidal

"Half of the American people have never read a newspaper. Half never voted for President. One hopes it is the same half"

Gore Vidal, Novelist

Gore Vidal

"There is a condition worse than blindness, and that is, seeing something that isn't there"

Thomas Hardy, Novelist

Thomas Hardy

"A resolution to avoid an evil is seldom framed till the evil is so far advanced as to make avoidance impossible"

Thomas Hardy, Novelist

Thomas Hardy

"A good laugh is sunshine in the house"

William Makepeace Thackeray, Novelist

William Makepeace Thackeray

"How long should a man's legs be? Long enough to touch the ground"

J.D. Salinger, Novelist

J.D. Salinger

"I got this idea of doing a really serious big work-it would be precisely like a novel, with a single difference: Every word of it would be true from beginning to end"

Truman Capote, Novelist

Truman Capote

"Lust's passion will be served; it demands, it militates, it tyrannizes"

Marquis de Sade, Novelist

Marquis de Sade

"I've already told you: the only way to a woman's heart is along the path of torment. I know none other as sure"

Marquis de Sade, Novelist

Marquis de Sade

"All things are possible until they are proved impossible - and even the impossible may only be so, as of now"

Pearl S. Buck, Novelist

Pearl S. Buck

"Inside myself is a place where I live all alone, and that is where I renew my springs that never dry up"

Pearl S. Buck, Novelist

Pearl S. Buck

"If you want to understand today, you have to search yesterday"

Pearl S. Buck, Novelist

Pearl S. Buck

"Unless a tree has borne blossoms in spring, you will vainly look for fruit on it in autumn"

Walter Scott, Novelist

Walter Scott

"Being a woman is a terribly difficult task, since it consists principally in dealing with men"

Joseph Conrad, Novelist

Joseph Conrad

"All change is not growth, as all movement is not forward"

Ellen Glasgow, Novelist

Ellen Glasgow

"Know thyself. A maxim as pernicious as it is ugly. Whoever studies himself arrest his own development. A caterpillar who seeks to know himself would never become a butterfly"

Andre Gide, Novelist

Andre Gide

"It is only in adventure that some people succeed in knowing themselves - in finding themselves"

Andre Gide, Novelist

Andre Gide

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