Michael Cunningham Quotes & Sayings (Page 2)

“I love movies, I love television, I love narratives of all kinds.”

“I seem to produce a novel approximately once every three years.”

“I just don't feel much interested in the lifestyles of the rich and famous.”

“Language in fiction is made up of equal parts meaning and music. The sentences should have rhythm and cadence, they should engage and delight the inner ear.”

“Like my hero Virginia Woolf, I do lack confidence. I always find that the novel I'm finishing, even if it's turned out fairly well, is not the novel I had in my mind. I think a lot of writers must negotiate this, and if they don't admit it, they're not being honest.”

“As writers we must, from our very opening sentence, speak with authority to our readers.”

“I have no useful theories about love and marriage.”

“Before there was any talk of a movie, people would sometimes ask me what actors I would imagine playing these characters. And the only thing I could ever say is: I have such a clear idea of these characters that they'd have to play themselves.”

“Here's a secret. Many novelists, if they are pressed and if they are being honest, will admit that the finished book is a rather rough translation of the book they'd intended to write.”

“I know, speaking for myself, no matter what I'm able to do, no matter what book comes out and ends up on paper, I always had something bigger and grander in my head.”