10 Audrey Niffenegger Quotes on Writing and for Writers

Here are 10 Audrey Niffenegger quotes for writers and about writing from the author of The Time Traveler's Wife and Her Fearful Symmetry. In these quotes, Niffenegger covers writing, research, books, and more.

Audrey Niffenegger is an American novelist and artist. A couple of her titles include The Time Traveler's Wife and Her Fearful Symmetry. She has also published several visual books, including one co-authored with her husband Eddie Campbell.

(Successful Writing Collaborations.)

Niffenegger's debut novel, The Time Traveler's Wife, was adapted into a movie. When asked if she thought she would ever watch it, Niffenegger said, "No, I don't think so. The movie, it really belongs to the people who made it. It's their work of art."

Here are 10 Audrey Niffenegger quotes for writers and about writing from the November/December 2009 issue of Writer's Digest magazine.

"Even if you don't want to think about death all the time, which we mostly don't, nevertheless it's kind of there, giving daily life more of a sense of beauty."

"I finished the book to my own satisfaction, so if people want to rag on me, that's kind of their business. The only thing I'm actually in control of is what's in the book."

"I have piles and piles and piles of notes."

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"I was told at the very beginning of being published that of books that get optioned, apparently one in 40 gets made. So just the fact that the movie got made is pretty amazing."

"People think of books as being problematic. There's been this thing of everybody saying, 'They're acidic, and they take up space!' But on the whole, they have endured."

"The characters do get out and about in London somewhat, but London is so massive and so old and so layered that you can't really do a 'London' novel that takes in all of London. You have to break it down into bits."

"The first book was a bit of a continuity nightmare, and so I had all these timelines and charts and things.'"

(Free charts and tips for outlining and plotting a novel.)

"There was a point a couple of years ago where I suddenly realized that I had achieved control over my day. And that was really exciting. From that point on it's the freedom to make what you want, when you want."

"What I was essentially trying to do was think about what each character is aware of and what the characters do and don't tell each other, and times when the reader knows more than any one given character—which is most of the time actually."

"When you're constantly thinking of the thing by a certain title, it makes it perhaps seem more cohesive than it is at first, and then after a while the thing kind of grows into the title."