Mordecai Richler Quotes

Well, when I was a young writer the people we read were Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Sartre, Camus, Celine, Malraux. And to begin with, I was a bit of a copycat writer and very derivative and tried to write a novel using their voices, really.... I keep it out of print.

Mordecai Richler

• Writers
• Print
• Derivatives
• Copycats

• Previous
• Next

Quotes to Explore

• My first Comic-Con was when I first met Joss Whedon: He introduced me to that world and I'd never been to a convention before that. He and a bunch of the 'Buffy' and 'Angel' writers were all going down in a big van and he invited me along.

  

  Nathan Fillion
  • World
  • Angel
  • Writers

• An actor is somebody who communicates someone else's words and emotions to an audience. It's not me. It's what writers want me to be.

  

  Maggie Smith
  • Me
  • Audience
  • Actor

• Writers are storytellers. So are readers.

  

  Oliver North
  • Writers
  • Readers

• My problem with new writers is that it takes me five or six years to memorise the right names.

  

  Larry Niven
  • Problem
  • Right
  • Names

• When I went from being an academic to being a member of the community of writers some of my former colleagues did look on me with a certain resentment.

  

  Umberto Eco
  • Community
  • Writers
  • Colleagues

• Writers are not meant for action.

  

  Manuel Puig
  • Action
  • Writers
  • Meant

• It's easier to release an ebook than a print book.

  

  J. A. Konrath
  • Book
  • Easier
  • Print

• I love writers all across the board, but one who influenced me very directly at the beginning was Mary Renault.

  

  Tanith Lee
  • Beginning
  • Writers
  • Influenced

• Writers are essential. Readers are essential. Publishers are not.

  

  J. A. Konrath
  • Writers
  • Readers
  • Publishers

• My sensibility steers me toward writers who are out on their own.

  

  Tahar Ben Jelloun
  • Me
  • Writers
  • Sensibility

• All I can say is that I am not one of those writers who want 100% of their book in the film. I recognize that film is a different medium and the filmmaker must have the right to bring some new elements to the table, provided the soul of the book is preserved.

  

  Vikas Swarup
  • Book
  • Soul
  • Film

• I do think Austin is a great town for writers; we have a lot of them here. But I grew up in Austin, and so I didn't move here because it was a creative mecca; I was just lucky to live here.

  

  Jeff Abbott
  • Live
  • Creative
  • Lucky

• It's all about who's where on the food chain. When I'm the story editor, I expect my writers to follow my vision. When I'm working for another editor, I'm obliged to follow their vision.

  

  Len Wein
  • Food
  • Vision
  • Writers

• If you're purely derivative in what you do, then you could very easily get lost along the way. But for me, I might want to even do something else for a while.

  

  Chrissie Hynde Pretenders
  • Way
  • Lost
  • While

• The problem a lot of writers have is that they really, really enjoy people saying, "You're brilliant." They let their self-perception be dictated by reader response. But if you're going to let other people make you feel good, you're going to end up feeling bad when they say the opposite. You've got to be a cultural stoic. Then you won't be devastated by people who respond negatively. Of course, the downside is that it sort of stops you from being able to enjoy people liking your work.

  

  Chuck Klosterman
  • People
  • Up
  • Good

• No matter what lens you use, no matter what speed the film, no matter how you develop it, no matter how you print it, you cannot say more than you can see.

  

  Paul Strand
  • Film
  • Speed
  • Print

• In comparing these two writers, he [Samuel Johnson] used this expression: "that there was as great a difference between them as between a man who knew how a watch was made, and a man who could tell the hour by looking on the dial-plate." This was a short and a figurative statement of his distinction between drawing characters of nature and characters only of manners, but I cannot help being of opinion, that the neat watches of Fielding are as well constructed as the large clocks of Richardson, and that his dial plates are brighter.

  

  James Boswell
  • Great
  • Help
  • Nature

• Loafing is the most productive part of a writer's life.

  

  James Norman Hall
  • Life
  • Part
  • Writers

• When God saw fit to bestow such a gift, a man with any sense didn’t ask questions.

  

  Catherine Anderson

• In human life, art may arise from almost any activity, and once it does so, it is launched on a long road of exploration, invention, freedom to the limits of extravagance, interference to the point of frustration, finally discipline, controlling constant change and growth.

  

  Susanne Langer
  • Long
  • Art
  • Change

• Turning as it looked for prey. Though the bird’s shadow whipped over her face.

  

  Elizabeth Lowell
  • Bird
  • Face
  • Prey

• There’s nothing wrong with not looking like something. It just means you don’t fit the stereotype yet.

  

  Haruki Murakami
  • Wrong
  • Stereotype

• Well, when I was a young writer the people we read were Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Sartre, Camus, Celine, Malraux. And to begin with, I was a bit of a copycat writer and very derivative and tried to write a novel using their voices, really.... I keep it out of print.

  

  Mordecai Richler
  • Writers
  • Print
  • Derivatives