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12 Bestselling Authors Share Exclusive Insights on Their Biggest Books
The minds of authors can be mysterious places. How do they come up with all those plot twists? What inspired them to create their most beloved characters? How very dare they make us cry like that?!
If you've ever wondered what a writer was thinking when they penned their book, you're in good company—our company, that is! As you can imagine, these are questions that also haunt us here at Goodreads, so we took matters into our own hands and reached out to some of our members' favorite authors to get the answers.
Below, you'll find a list of bestselling titles from literary legends, each of whom has shared behind-the-scenes peeks into their books. Take an exclusive look at all their Kindle Notes & Highlights, and be sure to add the books that pique your interest to your Want to Read shelf!
Your lives are set out for you. You’ll become adults, then before you’re old, before you’re even middle-aged, you’ll start to donate your vital organs. That’s what each of you was created to do.
"As above, here’s another huge truth about their fate – perhaps the most fundamental one – which the children receive not with horror, but almost like it’s another piece of routine educational knowledge imparted in class. This may echo, I felt, the way many of us first ‘heard about’ mortality..."
Read more insights from this Nobel Laureate in Literature on the novel that "kicked off a new phase" in his writing life.
"As above, here’s another huge truth about their fate – perhaps the most fundamental one – which the children receive not with horror, but almost like it’s another piece of routine educational knowledge imparted in class. This may echo, I felt, the way many of us first ‘heard about’ mortality..."
Read more insights from this Nobel Laureate in Literature on the novel that "kicked off a new phase" in his writing life.
Yes, of course duct tape works in a near-vacuum. Duct tape works anywhere. Duct tape is magic and should be worshiped.
"If it moves but shouldn’t: Duct tape. If it doesn’t move but should: WD-40. These two items cover all of your needs. Everything else in science is secondary."
Read more to find out how readers informed Andy Weir about why Aquaman can control whales.
"If it moves but shouldn’t: Duct tape. If it doesn’t move but should: WD-40. These two items cover all of your needs. Everything else in science is secondary."
Read more to find out how readers informed Andy Weir about why Aquaman can control whales.
At half past six on the twenty-first of June 1922, when Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov was escorted through the gates of the Kremlin onto Red Square, it was glorious and cool.
"The first time I visited Russia was in the summer of 1998. I had travelled there with my high school English teacher, Richard Baker—the man with whom I first read Dostoevsky. While there, naturally we visited Red Square where the Kremlin, St. Basils Cathedral, and Kazan Cathedral are all located..."
Read more to discover Towles' thoughts on the advantages of stew for the working family man.
"The first time I visited Russia was in the summer of 1998. I had travelled there with my high school English teacher, Richard Baker—the man with whom I first read Dostoevsky. While there, naturally we visited Red Square where the Kremlin, St. Basils Cathedral, and Kazan Cathedral are all located..."
Read more to discover Towles' thoughts on the advantages of stew for the working family man.
Hell was a place of remembering, each beautiful moment passed through the mind’s eye until it fell to the ground like a rotten mango, perfectly useless, uselessly perfect.
"I often turn to Toni Morrison when I want to think about the functions of memory, remembering. So much of her work deals with historical memory and time. I think of Beloved as a perfect example of how memory can both instruct and haunt..."
Read more to learn how Gyasi wrote her way into cultures, places, and identities that were both hers and not hers.
"I often turn to Toni Morrison when I want to think about the functions of memory, remembering. So much of her work deals with historical memory and time. I think of Beloved as a perfect example of how memory can both instruct and haunt..."
Read more to learn how Gyasi wrote her way into cultures, places, and identities that were both hers and not hers.
There’s this peace that comes with knowing you have a person in the world who would do anything for you, that you would do anything for.
"I write about female friendship a lot because I am so grateful for the women in my life who have become my found family. Daisy and Simone have a kinship that transcends friendship, it is a sisterhood..."
Read more if you’re curious about what Daisy Jones & the Six might have sounded like.
"I write about female friendship a lot because I am so grateful for the women in my life who have become my found family. Daisy and Simone have a kinship that transcends friendship, it is a sisterhood..."
Read more if you’re curious about what Daisy Jones & the Six might have sounded like.
Here the madness was divided up equally, and there was nothing left over for us to have our own lunatic.
"With a family like mine, I don’t need to invent much. Most of my relatives had a touch of madness; we were known to be 'original', which is to say that we didn’t quite fit into the usual mold. Today, some of my relatives would be certified nutcases, but in Chile in the '40s and '50s they were absorbed into the general weirdness of our clan."
Read more and learn how The House of the Spirits gave Allende a voice.
"With a family like mine, I don’t need to invent much. Most of my relatives had a touch of madness; we were known to be 'original', which is to say that we didn’t quite fit into the usual mold. Today, some of my relatives would be certified nutcases, but in Chile in the '40s and '50s they were absorbed into the general weirdness of our clan."
Read more and learn how The House of the Spirits gave Allende a voice.
In the American caste system, the signal of rank is what we call race, the division of humans on the basis of their appearance. In America, race is the primary tool and the visible decoy, the front man, for caste.
"Every caste system uses a means of determining rank in its hierarchy—religion, language, color, place of origin or other, often immutable, characteristics. As Americans, we're accustomed to race as the primary means of division, the historic basis for establishing rank in the hierarchy."
Read more insights into what Wilkerson calls "a labor of love and a prayer for humanity."
"Every caste system uses a means of determining rank in its hierarchy—religion, language, color, place of origin or other, often immutable, characteristics. As Americans, we're accustomed to race as the primary means of division, the historic basis for establishing rank in the hierarchy."
Read more insights into what Wilkerson calls "a labor of love and a prayer for humanity."
So it was that we soaped ourselves in sadness and we rinsed ourselves with hope, and for all that we believed almost every rumor we heard, almost all of us refused to believe that our nation was dead.
"I just liked this sentence a lot when I wrote it. The rhythm, the metaphor of showering. I was obsessed in this novel with trying to find as many striking images as I could, partly because I was beholden to two novels: António Lobo Antunes’ The Land at the End of the World, in which almost every sentence has a remarkable image, and Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita..."
Read more and find out how a passage of The Sympathizer maybe inspired a Green Day song.
"I just liked this sentence a lot when I wrote it. The rhythm, the metaphor of showering. I was obsessed in this novel with trying to find as many striking images as I could, partly because I was beholden to two novels: António Lobo Antunes’ The Land at the End of the World, in which almost every sentence has a remarkable image, and Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita..."
Read more and find out how a passage of The Sympathizer maybe inspired a Green Day song.
The husband, standing straight as a reed now, arms folded, lips pressed together, shakes his head. “What did she say?” “That you had more hidden away inside you than anyone else she’d ever met.”
"I wanted to give readers a new perspective on Shakespeare’s marriage, to suggest that William and Agnes loved each other, that theirs was a partnership. This idea expressed in this excerpt is drawn from my conjecture about how Shakespeare might have been seen in rural Warwickshire when he was young. I think he must have stuck out a mile..."
Read more to learn the question that inspired O'Farrell to write this award-winning novel.
"I wanted to give readers a new perspective on Shakespeare’s marriage, to suggest that William and Agnes loved each other, that theirs was a partnership. This idea expressed in this excerpt is drawn from my conjecture about how Shakespeare might have been seen in rural Warwickshire when he was young. I think he must have stuck out a mile..."
Read more to learn the question that inspired O'Farrell to write this award-winning novel.
The painting was a self-portrait. She titled it in the bottom left-hand corner of the canvas, in light blue Greek lettering. One word: Alcestis.
"The Greek myths are hard to escape, growing up in Cyprus, as I did―you are taught Homer from the age of 13 in school―and the tragedies are constantly being performed and reimagined. I came across the tragedy Alcestis by Euripides when I was 13..."
Read more and find out which author Michaelides credits for making him into a writer.
"The Greek myths are hard to escape, growing up in Cyprus, as I did―you are taught Homer from the age of 13 in school―and the tragedies are constantly being performed and reimagined. I came across the tragedy Alcestis by Euripides when I was 13..."
Read more and find out which author Michaelides credits for making him into a writer.
Walk the paths of logic. Every outcome has its cause, and every predicament has its solution. Every lock its key.
"As a parent, I’m continually trying (and failing) to beat back the flames of my anxiety with logic. This airplane’s bouncing around like mad, I tell myself, but how many planes actually crash from turbulence? My kid has a fever, but it’s just a fever, and everyone gets fevers from time to time, right?"
Read more to learn how The Matrix sort of helped to inspire this Pulitzer Prize-winning novel.
"As a parent, I’m continually trying (and failing) to beat back the flames of my anxiety with logic. This airplane’s bouncing around like mad, I tell myself, but how many planes actually crash from turbulence? My kid has a fever, but it’s just a fever, and everyone gets fevers from time to time, right?"
Read more to learn how The Matrix sort of helped to inspire this Pulitzer Prize-winning novel.
‘Ye are Blood of my Blood, and Bone of my Bone. I give ye my Body, that we Two might be One. I give ye my Spirit, ’til our Life shall be Done.’
"I’m always moved when people want to use this vow in their own weddings. Sometimes they ask about the origins, which they assume to be traditionally Gaelic. In fact, I made it up (authors do that; it does say 'Fiction' on the spine, I mean…), but am all the more touched that it speaks to people."
Read more to discover what Gabaldon believes to be the "single best tool a writer has."
"I’m always moved when people want to use this vow in their own weddings. Sometimes they ask about the origins, which they assume to be traditionally Gaelic. In fact, I made it up (authors do that; it does say 'Fiction' on the spine, I mean…), but am all the more touched that it speaks to people."
Read more to discover what Gabaldon believes to be the "single best tool a writer has."
You can see and share your own Kindle Notes & Highlights here.
Want more author Kindle Notes & Highlights? Let us know other books you would like to see annotations for in the comments below!
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Want more author Kindle Notes & Highlights? Let us know other books you would like to see annotations for in the comments below!
Check out more recent articles, including:
68 Upcoming Books Goodreads' Editors Are Extremely Excited About
Get Ready for Spring's Most Anticipated New Mysteries
Explore 48 Fascinating Lives in These New and Upcoming Memoirs
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Mar 18, 2022 01:45PM
I’m currently reading Ghost Story by Peter Straub for a book club. I’d love to see author notes for this for a look back on this 70s novel. Even cooler would be to have Emma Straub’s notes on it as well!
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It’s always cool to see how authors view their own work! Great article :)
This is fascinating to me! I especially like the insights into Allende's work.
