#novelist

For a novelist, a given historic situation is an anthropologic laboratory in which he explores his basic question: What is human existence? ↗

— Milan Kundera

#existence #explores #given #his #historic

The light that radiates from the great novels time can never dim, for human existence is perpetually being forgotten by man and thus the novelists' discoveries, however old they may be, will never cease to astonish. ↗

— Milan Kundera

#being #being forgotten #cease #dim #discoveries

The novelist teaches the reader to comprehend the world as a question. There is wisdom and tolerance in that attitude. In a world built on sacrosanct certainties the novel is dead. ↗

— Milan Kundera

#built #certainties #comprehend #dead #novel

I cannot and do not live in the world of discretion, not as a writer, anyway. I would prefer to, I assure you - it would make life easier. But discretion is, unfortunately, not for novelists. ↗

— Philip Roth

#assure #cannot #discretion #easier #i

In effect I am not a novelist, but rather a failed essayist who started to write novels because he didn't know how to write essays. ↗

— Jose Saramago

#because #effect #essayist #essays #failed

There's a unique bond of trust between readers and authors that I don't believe exists in any other art form; as a reader, I trust a novelist to give me his or her best effort, however flawed. ↗

— Dan Simmons

#art #art form #authors #believe #best

To be a novelist, all I need is a pen and a piece of paper. ↗

— Quentin Tarantino

#need #novelist #paper #pen #piece

The materials of the novelist must be real; they must be gathered from the field of humanity by his actual observation. ↗

— Goldwin Smith

#be real #field #gathered #his #humanity

The novelist must ground his work in faithful study of human nature. ↗

— Goldwin Smith

#ground #his #human #human nature #must

The novelist must look on humanity without partiality or prejudice. His sympathy, like that of the historian, must be unbounded, and untainted by sect or party. ↗

— Goldwin Smith

#historian #humanity #like #look #must