A Quote by Martin Amis

You can't sort of write the novel as if you're taking dictation from heaven.

Martin Amis

Quote Topics

Dictation Heaven Novel Sort Taking Write

Quote Author

Martin Amis
British - Novelist
Born: August 25, 1949

I write whenever it suits me. During a creative period I write every day; a novel should not be interrupted. When I cease to be carried along, when I no longer feel as though I were taking down dictation, I stop.

Francois Mauriac

The DNA of the novel - which, if I begin to write nonfiction, I will write about this - is that: the title of the novel is the whole novel. The first line of the novel is the whole novel. The point of view is the whole novel. Every subplot is the whole novel. The verb tense is the whole novel.

Mary Kay Zuravleff

The reason that I'm considered to be prolific is just because I'm a good listener. It literally is me taking dictation when I write. I'm listening and typing as fast as I'm hearing the words.

Doreen Virtue

Well I think after leaving prison, and having written three diaries about life in prison, it became a sort of a new challenge to write another novel, to write a new novel.

Jeffrey Archer

I'm not sure that it's possible to write a novel about people who don't transgress or stumble, people who don't surprise themselves with the things they do, people who can explain all their actions with perfect logical consistency. At least it's not possible for me to write that sort of novel.

Tom Perrotta

I think, taking too long to work on a record, you sort of lose some of the feeling, so I write as fast as I can; it's just this manic phase where I'm by myself and or on tour, and I write, and I write.

John Darnielle

I didn't know how to write a novel, so I sort of let it happen in waves. The only way I could write it was to think like scenes in a movie.

Eileen Myles

If I have an idea, I write it down, although I usually carry a little dictation machine with me because I'm too lazy to write

Tommy Shaw

If I have an idea, I write it down, although I usually carry a little dictation machine with me because I'm too lazy to write.

Tommy Shaw

I think I'm succinct to the point of trying to write the two-word novel. Editing my work almost never means taking anything out but rather adding, because I'm always stripping down. I tend to under-write rather than over-write.

Kate DiCamillo

Artists are modest. They know they're not doing the work; they're just taking dictation.

Steven Pressfield

I feel that whatever virtues the novel may have are very much connected with the limitations you mention. I am not writing a conventional novel, and I think that the quality of the novel I write will derive precisely from the peculiarity or aloneness, if you will, of the experience I write from.

Flannery O'Connor

I'm working on a new novel, in its 3rd draft, but it's hard to write while doing 7th Heaven.

Stephen Collins

I think taking too long to work on a record you sort of lose some of the feeling, so I write as fast as I can; it's just this manic phase where I'm by myself and or on tour and I write and I write. And I send them to the guys, and we start planning our studio ventures.

John Darnielle

I never exactly made a book. It's rather like taking dictation. I was given things to say.