“The hard part about writing a novel is finishing it.”

“I once tried to write a novel about revenge. It's the only book I didn't finish. I couldn't get into the mind of the person who was plotting vengeance.”

Maeve Binchy (1940–2012) Irish novelist

“The beginnings and endings of all human undertakings are untidy, the building of a house, the writing of a novel, the demolition of a bridge, and, eminently, the finish of a voyage.”

John Galsworthy (1867–1933) English novelist and playwright

“I don't write fantasy; I write historical novels about an imaginary place.”

Raymond E. Feist (1945) Novelist

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

Gene Wolfe (1931–2019) American science fiction and fantasy writer

“I want to write a novel about Silence," he said; “the things people don’t say.”

Virginia Woolf book The Voyage Out

“Write hard and clear about what hurts.”

Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) American author and journalist

“Writing a novel is not very difficult: you simply write ten pages a day for a month and then you have a novel.”

Henri Peyre (1901–1988) American linguist

“Writing a novel is agony.”

George Orwell (1903–1950) English author and journalist

“If I could sum it up in 50 words, I wouldn't have needed to write a whole novel about it.”

Patrick Rothfuss (1973) American fantasy writer