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Novels usually evolve out of 'character.' Characters generate stories, and the shape of a novel is entirely imagined but should have an aesthetic coherence.

The thematic, psychological, and cultural concerns of a writer are more relevant than whatever literary mode he or she chooses to deal with in any given novel.

Novels attempt to render human experience; that's really all they are. They are meant to convey empathy for the character.

If fiction changes things, it's usually because it's a powerful way of exploring social issues. And it helps us to understand people who are different from us.

Every novelist has a different purpose - and often several purposes which might even be contradictory.

And almost always there has to be change, change in the characters is the journey - it's the story.

In the writing of novels, there is the problem of how to shape a narrative.

An author's characters do what he wants them to do.

But novels are never about what they are about; that is, there is always deeper, or more general, significance. The author may not be aware of this till she is pretty far along with it.

The most important basis of any novel is wanting to be someone else, and this means creating a character.