“A good novelist does not lead his characters, he follows them. A good novelist does not create events, he watches them happen and then writes down what he sees.”

—  Stephen King, book Finders Keepers

Source: Finders Keepers

Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "A good novelist does not lead his characters, he follows them. A good novelist does not create events, he watches them …" by Stephen King?
Stephen King photo
Stephen King733
American author 1947

Related quotes

P. D. James photo

“Every novelist write what he or she needs to write, a subconscious compulsion to express and explain his unique view of reality.”

P. D. James (1920–2014) English crime writer

Time to be Earnest - a Fragment of Biography Faber & Faber, London 1999.
Time to be Earnest - a Fragment of Biography

Philip K. Dick photo

“A novelist carries with him constantly what most women carry in large purses: much that is useless, a few absolutely essential items, and then, for good measure, a great number of things that fall in between. But the novelist does not transport them physically because his trove of possessions is mental. Now and then he adds a new and entirely useless idea; now and then he reluctantly cleans out the trash -- the obviously worthless ideas -- and with a few sentimental tears sheds them. Once in a great while, however, he happens by chance onto a thoroughly stunning idea new to him that he hopes will turn out to be new to everyone else. It is this final category that dignifies his existence. But such truly priceless ideas… perhaps during his entire lifetime he may, at best, acquire only a meager few. But that is enough; he has, through them, justified his existence to himself and to his God.”

Philip K. Dick (1928–1982) American author

"If You Find This World Bad, You Should See Some of the Others" (1977)

William Faulkner photo

“I’m a failed poet. Maybe every novelist wants to write poetry first, finds he can’t, and then tries the short story, which is the most demanding form after poetry. And, failing at that, only then does he take up novel writing.”

William Faulkner (1897–1962) American writer

Paris Review interview (1958)

Horace Bushnell photo

“Jesus does not drive His followers on before, as a herd of unwilling disciples, but goes before Himself, leading them into paths that He has trod, and dangers He has met, and sacrifices He has borne Himself, calling them after Him and to be only followers.”

Horace Bushnell (1802–1876) American theologian

Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 89.

John Dos Passos photo

“There is a part of me in every character, naturally. That's why novelists rarely write good autobiographies. You start one and it becomes another novel - bound to.”

John Dos Passos (1896–1970) novelist, playwright, poet, journalist, painter

"An Interview with Mr. John Dos Passos," New York Times, Nov 23 1941

Jean de La Bruyère photo

“That man is good who does good to others; if he suffers on account of the good he does, he is very good”

Jean de La Bruyère book Les Caractères

Aphorism 44
Les Caractères (1688), Du mérite personnel
Context: That man is good who does good to others; if he suffers on account of the good he does, he is very good; if he suffers at the hands of those to whom he has done good, then his goodness is so great that it could be enhanced only by greater sufferings; and if he should die at their hands, his virtue can go no further: it is heroic, it is perfect.

John Dos Passos photo

“The business of a novelist is, in my opinion, to create characters first and foremost, and then to set them in the snarl of the human currents of his time, so that there results an accurate permanent record of a phase of history.”

John Dos Passos (1896–1970) novelist, playwright, poet, journalist, painter

"The Business of a Novelist," review of William Rollins's The Shadow Before, 1934

J. M. Barrie photo

“The best of our fiction is by novelists who allow that it is as good as they can give, and the worst by novelists who maintain that they could do much better if only the public would let them.”

J. M. Barrie (1860–1937) Scottish writer

The Contemporary Review (1891)

Michael Moorcock photo

“It’s in the nature of a good despot to say anything that will convince someone to do as he wishes. Only when he does not need them does he really say what he thinks. And by that time, of course, because he has no need of them, they are usually as good as dead. The secret of becoming a successful tyrant lies in an early ability to be all things to all people.”

Michael Moorcock book The Steel Tsar

Book 2, Chapter 7 “A Mechanical Man” (p. 397)
The Steel Tsar (1981)

Related topics