~Cesare Pavese, The Burning Brand
Magnificent Joe: “… a brutal little novel that manages also to be tender and funny.” Everybody dreams of change, particularly at the start of a freezing day's roofing, when the men consider "'Thirty-odd more years of this shite', and then everyone's lottery fantasy comes tumbling out … the same story day after day, slipping through clumsy mouths like worn rosary beads through arthritic hands." But this is a community in which not much happens, apart from one big thing that already did, and another that seems almost inevitable Of Mice and Men: Magnificent Jozef
“…ultimately centered on the brutal British experience of World War II, with characters caught in the blitz and Ursula joining a rescue unit for injured civilians. As powerful as the rest of “Life After Life” is, its lengthy evocation of this nightmare is gutsy and deeply disturbing, just as the author intends it to be.” Life After Life
“In spite of certain dark moments and some unhappy endings This Close is ultimately a book about the myriad ways we can choose to be there for each other in the darkest times.” Francis Kane’s This Close
Matt Haig has learned a thing or 30 in a decade in the book business. Read his list of ’30 Things That Every Writer Should Know’ Success depends on great words, and passionate people. The words are up to you. The people you have to pray for, and stand by them once you find them. .. The gatekeepers still have the power, but there are a lot more gates than there used to be People like your book more if other people like it ;-)
“How do you build empathy for the characters in your book? Make them suffer. That’s an old trick of the trade, and Elizabeth Strout, the Pulitzer-winning author of Olive Kitteridge, uses it brilliantly…” ''Her mother had never said, Susan, I'm sorry.... And it was too late. No one wants to believe something is too late, but it is always becoming too late, and then it is.'' ... Elizabeth Strout’s The Burgess Boys: Many Memorable Lines
“If writers were good businessmen, they’d have too much sense to be writers.”
~Irvin S. Cobb
“Writing a novel is a terrible experience, during which the hair often falls out and the teeth decay. I’m always irritated by people who imply that writing fiction is an escape from reality. It is a plunge into reality and it’s very shocking to the system.”
~ Flannery O’Connor