Novella Quotes

He paused, giving her a sweet smile of understanding. "You don't have to start with the crown jewels, you know. You could start with my lips then work your way down. ~ Sara Daniel

If B follows A, then B is not necessarily a cause of A. ~ Steven Novella

There is a novella inside every anus; there is a broken heart inside every mind; there is a bisected hug inside every arm; there is a pun inside every belly. "The Great American Novel," thinks the typographer, who at this point is severely constipated. He tries to squeeze out an 'o' but can't. "The Great American Navel," he says, then waits for a laugh. ~ Jimmy Chen

Yeah. I was grinning. Running my tongue over my teeth, I felt the familiar jab of fangs. Shifting wasn't in my plans for the day, but it was hard to stop a little cat from slipping through when I was having such a good time listening to Angel eviscerate kids. ~ Lola Dodge

Italians love emotional people. If you're reserved you either have something to hide or you're just plain stupid. ~ Joe Novella

Exactly. You like me. The word you use was like. You'll find someone better than me. Someone you'll love and not just like. ~ Kristine Cuevas

My travels have been numerous, though no topographer could chart the shores I have landed upon. For it is not places that have been my destination, but women. I am drawn to them by a force I have never questioned. To their infinite variety of charms I am helpless. But the hold of none has been strong enough to keep me from wandering aimlessly to others. ~ Roy L. Pickering Jr.

Oh, I don't mean to infer that you're not a great guy. I'm sure you're the exception to the rule. ~ Jaye Frances

Like the magnolia tree,
She bends with the wind,
Trials and tribulation may weather her,
Yet, after the storm her beauty blooms,
See her standing there, like steel,
With her roots forever buried,
Deep in her Southern soil. ~ Nancy B. Brewer

There's no such thing as 'epic love'. But there is such a thing as 'epically bad decisions based on something believed to be love, but is most likely lust. ~ Brodi Ashton

So my methodological approach is to draw on many different features in highlighting different facets of the novella (and the opera and the film). ~ Philip Kitcher

The modern world did have a few advantages.
Nice threads. Juicy steaks. Little black dresses ... ~ Lola Dodge

The only person in my head is me.
Tibe is not the same. The crown has changed him, as you feared it would.
The fire is in him, the fire that will burn all the world.
And it is in your son, in the prince who will never change his blood and will never sit a throne.
The only person in my head is me.
The only person who has not changed is you. You are still the little girl in a dusty room, forgotten, unwanted, out of place. You are the queen of everything, mother to a beautiful son, wife to a king who loves you, and still you cannot find it in yourself to smile.
Still you make nothing.
Still you are empty.
The only person in your head is you.
And she is no one of any importance.
She is nothing ~ Victoria Aveyard

When I think of Tokyo Story, yeah, it is like a novella. That doesn't mean it's not great. Some of my favorite Tolstoy works are his novellas. ~ Paul Auster

He knew he was an interloper in her world, and that world would seek to eject him. ~ Erin Kellison

I don't believe I've ever truly appreciated flowers before tonight. ~ Julia Mills

History is strewn with ideas that were intuitive and made sense at the time, but were also hopelessly wrong. ~ Steven Novella

Good humour was miles behind a second cup of morning tea. It was too early for nonsense. ~ Zeenat Mahal

Absolutely. No more pretending! ~ Dana Burkey

The Uncommon Reader, a novella by Alan Bennett ~ Will Schwalbe

That language could but extol, not reproduce, the beauties of the sense. ~ Thomas Mann

I'm too much a man for hysterics.
Liu, Marjorie M. (2009-01-20). Hunter Kiss: A Companion Novella to The Iron Hunt and Darkness Calls (A Hunter Kiss Novella) (Kindle Locations 355-356). Penguin Group US. Kindle Edition. ~ Marjorie M. Liu

Introduction I learned about a lot of things in medical school, but mortality wasn't one of them. Although I was given a dry, leathery corpse to dissect in my first term, that was solely a way to learn about human anatomy. Our textbooks had almost nothing on aging or frailty or dying. How the process unfolds, how people experience the end of their lives, and how it affects those around them seemed beside the point. The way we saw it, and the way our professors saw it, the purpose of medical schooling was to teach how to save lives, not how to tend to their demise. The one time I remember discussing mortality was during an hour we spent on The Death of Ivan Ilyich, Tolstoy's classic novella. ~ Atul Gawande

oh shit it's shit ~ Stephen King

From moment one, you were the wildest thing I've ever seen. ll I do is imagine how you'd taste. ~ Lola Dodge

If you go wrong in a novel, you can straighten it out in the next chapter. You don't have any room to do that in a novella. ~ Gilbert Morris

I can write three novels in the time it takes to write one novella. I'm probably not going to go with that form again. ~ Nathan Lowell

I unlocked the deadbolt and flung the door open, stepping back for Gabby to see exactly who it was. "Hello, Sara," I greeted.
A bubble of laughter escaped Gabby before she could contain it. "Yes, hello ex-girlfriend Sara. And might I add: law-breaker? Who let you out of your cage? Don't you know Joseph has a restraining order against you? ~ Laura Kreitzer

Well, well, what was that you were saying the other day about how you're not attracted to him?" Kennedy teased.
"I'm not." Val protested weakly and then shrugged. "He's nice looking, that's all. But..."
"But nothing. You should climb back on the horse that threw ya." Claire said.
"And I bet he'd give you quite a nice ride." Kennedy put in wickedly. ~ Courtney Hunt

Besides, you're going to need all your strength tonight. I have many wicked plans for you."
"Good." Mac smiled up at her, pressing a kiss to the back of her hand. "Think we'll make it as far as the bedroom this time?"
"I was thinking the kitchen counter, but I'm flexible... ~ Courtney Hunt

As far as I can see, the biggest decision you've got to make is which color lacy panties to let him peel of of you. ~ Courtney Hunt

Suddenly, she burst out, "I want to punch her evil, lying face."
Liam caught a flash of hot gold as Dad looked at them, narrow-eyed, in the rearview mirror. Dad said, completely seriously, "I can make that happen. ~ Thea Harrison

Why did I have to look like hell when he looked like he just stepped out of a comic book? ~ Lola Dodge

Mann was conscious of adopting different perspectives in different parts of the novella, but my guess is that there are plenty of passages in which the resonance of the words he chose struck him as exactly right (even though he didn't probe to discover exactly what tone or narrative device gave them that effect). ~ Philip Kitcher

No, it's not [a book] Lana. It's an allegorical novella about Stalinism by George Orwell, and spoiler alert, IT SUCKS. ~ Sterling Archer

When everything went wrong at once, it felt like folding origami in a hurricane. ~ Lola Dodge

I believe the novella is the perfect form of prose fiction. It is the beautiful daughter of a rambling, bloated ill-shaven giant (but a giant who's a genius on his best days). ~ Ian McEwan

Whenever she felt at home, there always seemed to be love floating about on the edges of things. ~ Meia Geddes

Because it's all about the journey... ~ Selena Fulton

I sat with my toes buried in the warm yellow sand staring out towards the back door of The East. Pacific Ocean Blue was playing in the background and it had left me in a state of Bohemia as the waves crashed ashore; roaring as loud as lions. ~ David Louden

I had seen that once before, bleeding water. A little baby I worked on as a resident in training. That poor kid had been shot as well - his father had blasted away the top of his head with a shotgun - and we couldn't begin to stop the bloodletting in that case. "Looking pretty thin down here," I hollered when the stuff coming out his wounds was no more than pink salt water. That baby's heart stopped, started, stopped and started a dozen times before it finally gave up the ghost and we pronounced him. I could have read a newspaper through the watery stuff coming out his veins by then. ~ Edison McDaniels

Joseph, you're out of clean towels." Lucia poked her head into the living room, the rest of her hidden behind the wall. Her red hair dripped water onto my wooden floors.
"She's in the buff." Jenna guffawed. Gabriella rolled her eyes, beaming.
I rose. "Go back to the bathroom. I'll bring you a towel," I ordered Lucia. She disappeared down the hall.
"You have naked angels running around your house," Jenna continued through her laughter. Gabby laughed louder. ~ Laura Kreitzer

Ingra...Stop looking at the screen." Lakri tried to keep his voice calm he knows...dammit Ingra knows what's happening ~ Charon Lloyd-Roberts

You feel pretty ,manly to me," I breathed out, all jelly-legged with half-mast eyes.
"And you feel like a woman worthy of a fight, Ms.Greene. ~ L.J. Shen

Here's your daddy," Emily whispered to the pink bundle in her arms. They had taken her away right after she was born to run some tests. They were worried about her heart, which had scared the shit out of me. Emily had held my hand and reassured me that our little girl would be OK. She prayed to God , so she was banking on the big man to save our baby. I wished I trusted him that much.

Glines, Abbi (2014-12-15). Kiro's Emily: A Rosemary Beach Novella (The Rosemary Beach Series Book 10) (Kindle Locations 1159-1162). Atria Books. Kindle Edition. ~ Abbi Glines

Thomas moves even closer until their faces were less than an inch apart, their breath mixed and harsh. He sees Taylor's eyes move to his lips. Thomas's breath hitches. He couldn't resist darting his eyes lower as well to look at Taylor's pink full lips. Taylor licks them, then parts them slightly. Almost like he was begging to be kissed.
"Fuck it" Thomas says before leaning to crush their mouths together. ~ Alexandra B. Donna

Having made films, I know very well that the scope of the average 90- to 120-minute movie is about the same narrative heft as a long short story or a novella. ~ Paul Auster

Ayn Rand called her novella Anthem a "hymn to man's ego." My approach to Anthem the play was to provide the story a further dimension through music and sound. The work is now larger than a hymn. It's really "spoken opera." ~ Jeff Britting

My novella, 'The Lucky One,' is inspired in part by my dad and also by a Holocaust survivor I interviewed for the Steven Spielberg Survivors of the Shoah Foundation. ~ Jenna Blum

It's complicated," I said in defense, hands going up to show surrender.
"Talk slowly," Jenna retorted derisively.
"Okay, I deserved that," I admitted. ~ Laura Kreitzer

I've got a folder full of rejection slips that I keep. Know why? Because those same editors are now calling my agent hoping I'll write a book or novella for them. Things change. A rejection slip today might mean a frantic call to your agent in six months. ~ MaryJanice Davidson

I think I like you," I muttered, pressing my face to his muscled torso in a hug. I felt his heartbeat under my ear.
"I think I like you back. ~ L.J. Shen

With Wings of the Butterfly, John Urbancik infuses his tale of shapeshifters, romance and pack rivalry with some unexpected and welcome surprises. Fluid prose, gore galore and all-too human characters make this unusual, fast-paced novella a must for fans who like their horror served blood-rare. ~ Kealan Patrick Burke

As long as nobody knew what it was, nobody could take it from her. ~ Josh Malerman

He shrugged and slipped the glasses on. "Do I look like a bodyguard now?"
With his solid muscle, that suit, and those shades? More like a hit man. But that would work. I needed people to keep their distance from the testy panther, and no one was going to come close when he looked perfectly capable of masterminding a mob hit. ~ Lola Dodge

The truth is: I did want to be my dad's poem. I wanted to be his drawing, his novella, his most refined work of art. I wanted him to shape me with his love and intelligence. I wanted him to edit out my mistakes and many indulgences, with a sharp red pencil or a clean eraser. ~ Alysia Abbott

I can still remember the afternoon, on my 15th birthday, when I opened up 'The Virgin and the Gypsy,' D.H. Lawrence's novella, in my tiny cell in boarding school, and whole worlds of possibility opened out that I had never guessed existed. The language was on fire and sang of liberation. ~ Pico Iyer

He pulled me toward him, and all I could do was stand there with arms at my sides and head against his chest. Broken, I feared even the slightest movement would cause pieces of me to snap off and fall to the gritty pavement. ~ Jodi LaPalm

A dark-haired woman with old eyes and young cleavage finally leaned her bosom toward him. "I'm sorry, sir, but I don't think I caught your position in the Sol business affairs."
Consort. Mica could have easily named him her personal guard. Her secretary. Even her research assistant. Well, two could play.
He bowed his head slightly, happy to oblige. "I see to the sexual needs of Mica Sol, firstborn and heir to the Sol corp. ~ Erin Kellison

Ah yes, now you're beginning to feel it. It's so satisfying to see my best efforts coming to fruition. Undoubtedly one of the most gratifying rewards of my profession. It would warm my heart - if I had one. ~ Jaye Frances

Look at Mann's reading habits, his explicit comments on Nietzsche, and his copy of Birth of Tragedy, and it starts to seem doubtful that this work of Nietzsche's played much role in the gestation of the novella. ~ Philip Kitcher

The original plan for this novella was for it to be 18,000 words. It ended up at around 40,000. Ah well. That just happens sometimes. (Particularly when you are me.) ~ Brandon Sanderson

There was a single window that tapered into a funnel, with eerie moonlight passing through it, reflecting directly off the globe like a mirror. For a moment, as I rose I saw something glimmering within. Dumbly, with feverish whispers assailing me, I realized it was the center of one of the distant galaxies, flaring after some unknown cataclysm. Its radiance was such that it burst from its prison. It met the moonlight halfway. It created kaleidoscopic colours on the walls. Then, in answer, the reliefs transformed from majestic art into something approaching divine, alive, plays from Egyptian memory, given the spark of life from space. I saw animal-headed gods move. They stepped from the walls to take their place around the altar. All stared at the globe. Each raised their arms in silent supplication. And such was their toxic ecstasy that I wished to join them, to forget my dreadful experiences and revel in something truly wondrous. ~ Tim Reed

The pure menace radiating from my younger sister is undeniable. She can hate me, but I need her to know that she has something that Stella never did: a place to fall. "And if he hurts you or if anyone hurts you...you have me."
It feels unnatural, but I hug my sister. Her arms are limp at her sides, but she doesn't push me away.
"Remember, you have me," I repeat. ~ Katie McGarry

Some claims deserve ridicule, and anything less falsely elevates them. ~ Steven Novella

But realistically, I could not kill my brother-in-law. ~ Lola Dodge

Mica didn't just glitter; she burned, and he was on fire. ~ Erin Kellison

Barbara felt lightheaded, almost dizzy with what she was about to say. But she said it anyway. "As you wish, Your Majesty. In that case, I am afraid I must resign my position as Baba Yaga. If I am forced to choose between the work I was destined to do and the man I was destined to love, I choose the man. ~ Deborah Blake

And maybe her eyes still worked regardless of the shape she took, and she could see everything. And maybe somehow she broke through the atmosphere and was sent somewhere out in space where she couldn't tell if her eyes were opened or closed. ~ J.C. Dorian

Renovations (Horror Suspense novella) John Stone ~ John Stone

A large piece of lead floated out of Bobby head, followed by dark chunks of what could only be pieces of Bobby's brain.

The torrent started up again. It flowed steady rather than pulsed with his heart. I knew from that, and from the amount of blood, that it was that mofo vein bleeding. And probably more than a small tear if the amount of blood was telling. I thought there had to be a hole the size of Montana in that thing.

"Jesus Mother Mary" I said, then "Stitch!"

The scrub tech slapped a needle holder into my palm, a curved needle and silk stitch clamped into the end of it. I might have closed my eyes - I've been told I do that sometimes in surgery when I'm trying to visualize something - though if so I don't remember doing it. I took that needle and aimed it into the pool of blood.

"Suck here Joe, right here."

When I thought I could see something, something gray and not black red, I plunged the pointy end of the needle through whatever the visible tissue was and looped it out again. I cinched it down and tied it quick, then repeated the maneuver again after adjusting slightly for lighting, sweating, my own bounding heartbeat, and the regret I wasn't wearing my own diaper.
We're losing, I thought. ~ Edison McDaniels

That night he ate so much spaghetti, Mom said he was in danger of turning into a big noodle, which made him laugh so hard, he fell out of his chair. ~ Thea Harrison

What we often take to be the new is simply the old under some novel form. ~ Henry James

Hunter and hunted. There are so many ways in which a man can destroy a woman." Her handmaid sighed. "When it comes to matters of the heart, immortals know nothing. ~ Paula Altenburg

He dragged her to him, and she, being equally focused on attaching her mouth to his, lost her balance. Stepping in for the save, he held her up against the doorjamb with his hard body, mouth rasping hers, tongue deep enough to touch her soul. Could be oxygen deprivation, but she saw stars behind her closed lids. ~ Erin Kellison

Fort somehow turned the symbol of nerdiness into a visual aphrodisiac - Spanish fly in the form of solid black frames. ~ Shirin Dubbin

Maybe, just maybe, if I 'm lucky enough, I 'm still just having a bad trip. ~ Vasileios Kalampakas

It's all a carefully crafted illusion ~ Courtney Hunt

The first piece of 'long' fiction I wrote was a novella parody of Stephen King's 'Christine.' I was in high school, and my version was about a kid with a possessed locker instead of a possessed car. It was also my first attempt at humour, which fell completely flat because no one who read it realized it was a parody! ~ Kelley Armstrong

I am the Captain of my own life. ~ Lexis De Rothschild

Why the anchor?"
"Because sometimes, it's nice to feel like there's someone who can save you. ~ L.J. Shen

But optimism dribbles away when horror repeats. ~ Tim Reed

'Envy the Night' was my first stand alone, the first book I'd written in the third person and I loved the feel of that, and it was different but it was also the same. 'So Cold the River,' I knew, was going to be really different, and that's why I thought about doing it as a novella under a pseudonym, because I didn't want to damage my career. ~ Michael Koryta

The voices of all the lost, all the Indians, metis, hunters, Mounted Police, wolfers, cowboys, all the bundled bodies that the spring uncovered and the warming sun released into the stink of final decay; all the starving, freezing, gaunt, and haunted men who had challenged this country and failed; all the ghosts from smallpox-stilled Indian camps, the wandering spirits of warriors killed in their sleep on the borders of the deadly hills, all the skeleton women and children of the starving winters, all the cackling, maddened cannibals, every terrified, lonely, crazed, and pitiful outcry that these plains had ever wrung from human lips, went wailing and moaning over him, mingled with the living shouts of the foreman and the old-timer, and he said, perhaps aloud, remembering the legend of the Crying River, and the voices that rode the wind there as here, Qu'appelle? Qu'appelle? ~ Wallace Stegner

Before he went away, he had heard all about the self-made girl, and there was something in the picture that strongly impressed him. She was possible doutbless only in America; American life had smoothed the way for her. She was not fast, nor emancipated, nor crude, nor loud, and there wasn't in her, of necessity at least, a grain of the stuff of which the adventuress is made.
She was simply very successful, and her success was entirely personal. She hadn't been born with the silver spoon of social opportunity, she had grasped it by honest exertion. You knew her by many different signs, but chiefly, infallibly, by the appearance of her parents. It was her parents who told her story; you always saw how little her parents could have made her. Her attitude with regard to them might vary in different ways. As the great fact on her own side was that she had lifted herself from a lower social plane, done it all herself, and done it by the simple lever of her personality, it was naturally to be expected that she would leave the authors of her mere material being in the shade.
(…)
But the general characteristic of the self-made girl was that, though it was frequently understood that she was privately devoted to her kindred, she never attempted to impose them on society, and it was striking that, though in some of her manifestations a bore, she was at her worst less of a bore than they. They were almost always solemn and portentous, and they were for the most part of a d ~ Henry James

It was hard to judge a man's full character by his bachelor party etiquette. ~ Lola Dodge

Turning on him, she placed her hands on her hips, glad he was still sitting. "You keep telling me that I need to be sure, but I'm starting to think this is all your bullshit, Ryan O'Callaghan." His eyes widened a fraction, but she continued, letting the steam that had been building inside her break free just a tiny bit. "I know what I want and I'm not going to beg you to mate with me. ~ Katie Reus

She pressed his amulet to her lips, then let it fall on its chain to rest between their two bodies. "We could leave here," she said to him. "We could run away together."
He frowned at the stars, the bubble of peacefulness that had settled around them after their lovemaking now ruptured. "I run from nothing and no one. ~ Paula Altenburg

Italians and Greeks have uncles, aunts, cousins and grandparents as far as the eye can see. ~ Joe Novella

I don't think readers of Mann have overlooked the fact that he was a great ironist, but they have tended to see the irony in particular parts of the novella, and to miss it in others. ~ Philip Kitcher

It was like walking into another world. While the mansion was bright, warm, comfy and filled with sound and color, the outside was dark, cold, colorless and devoid of people.
I found myself standing beside Thomas in the street. The paved road felt so cold it was hurting my feet. I kept moving them up and down, afraid my skin would freeze to the pavement. My heart was racing already and I felt a bit out of breath. If we stood there much longer i was going to hyperventilate. ~ J.C. Joranco

Awe! Leaving so soon?" Gabby said sweetly, holding the door open. "I was just about to pull out the gun for you to play single-player Russian Roulette. ~ Laura Kreitzer

The novella is at once the most elegant and demanding form: a writer must balance the looseness of a novel with the concision of a short story, a feat that only the bravest and most talented of us can manage. In Brazil, Jesse Lee Kercheval proves, yet again, that she is exactly the right writer for the job. A wild American picaresque, Brazil snaps along briskly, yet feels full-fleshed, and brims with a sly wit and grace. ~ Lauren Groff

Shut the front door!" Jenna exclaimed.
Andrew disappeared into the foyer, and when he returned, his eyebrows were furrowed in confusion. "The door is shut? ~ Laura Kreitzer

Try not to be too stupid, will you?
That sounded like some great advice ... ~ Thea Harrison

Gem thought it would be hilarious to shear his brother's fine hair off while he was sleeping. Ever since then Menai decided he actually preferred the Mohawk. Both had inherited their mother's Western Continent coloring, a blend of pearly white and sea grass green that set their bold sea-colored eyes off handsomely. And since they had grown old enough to realize this, they had become a pair of pre-pubescent manipulating terrors. ~ Jennifer Silverwood

Mann was less interested, I think, in constructing any kind of "portrait of an age" than he was in delineating an individual consciousness in which profound struggles about identity and direction arise - struggles that Mann himself had not only reflected on but felt keenly. Visconti takes up this central focus of the novella, but he couples it with a more social perspective. ~ Philip Kitcher

Outside the station of Santa Maria Novella Isabella has to stand aside while a line of prisoners are marched into the terminus by armed Fascist guards. They pass within touching distance of her, carrying bags and bundles. There are old people and some children too. They all seem swamped by their clothes, disembodied by them somehow. Then she catches the eye of Ezra, a young Jewish man who once worked in the arts material shop where she buys most of her pigments and brushes. He is almost at the back of the line. The veins are high and urgent on his hand. His trousers are held up with a dirty piece of string. His cobalt blue eyes hold hers for the barest beat of a moment but some essence of his being conveys itself to her and her blood quickens in sympathy for him. She has the feeling of looking into the eyes of a ghost. ~ Glenn Haybittle

I had a party to plan, reminders to send, some positive PR to get out, L.A. travel plans to take care of and now a bit of a conspiracy to start unraveling.
For starters.
Just another average Sunday with the M10. ~ Lola Dodge

When an Italian marries a Greek, you get the union of two lots of people who believe themselves to be the creators of modern civilization ~ Joe Novella