A man who is not born with the novel-writing gift has a troublesome time of it when he tries to build a novel. I know this from experience. He has no clear idea of his story; in fact he has no story. He merely has some people in his mind, and an incident or two, also a locality, and he trusts he can plunge those people into those incidents with interesting results. So he goes to work. To write a novel? No--that is a thought which comes later; in the beginning he is only proposing to tell a little tale, a very little tale, a six-page tale. But as it is a tale which he is not acquainted with, and can only find out what it is by listening as it goes along telling itself, it is more than apt to go on and on and on till it spreads itself into a book. I know about this, because it has happened to me so many times. Mark Twain
About This Quote

Ernest Hemingway, in his essay "Notes on the Novel," wrote: "A man who is not born with the novel-writing gift has a troublesome time of it when he tries to build a novel. I know this from experience. He has no clear idea of his story; in fact he has no story. He merely has some people in his mind, and an incident or two, also a locality, and he trusts he can plunge those people into those incidents with interesting results."

Source: Puddnhead Wilson And Other Tales

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More Quotes By Mark Twain
  1. After all these years, I see that I was mistaken about Eve in the beginning; it is better to live outside the Garden with her than inside it without her.
  2. When you fish for love, bait with your heart, not your brain.
  3. Good friends, good books, and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life.
  4. The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.
  5. Don't part with your illusions. When they are gone you may still exist, but you have ceased to live.
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