Quotessence
Home / Authors / Louis Auchincloss
Louis Auchincloss

Louis Auchincloss Quotes

Lawyer

Filter quotes by topic

AllIfsMenTodayWritingEnoughIdeasPeopleThinkingCareCharacterKnowsLittlesSchoolTryingWellsArtBoysChildrenClassClubs

Famous Louis Auchincloss Quotes

“I don't particularly care about having [my characters] talk realistically, that doesn't mean very much to me. Actually, a lot of people speak more articulately than some critics think, but before the 20th century it really didn't occur to many writers that their language had to be the language of everyday speech. When Wordsworth first considered that in poetry, it was considered very much of a shocker. And although I'm delighted to have things in ordinary speech, it's not what I'm trying to perform myself at all: I want my characters to get their ideas across, and I want them to be articulate.”

PeopleThinkingWantWritingTryingFirstsMeanIdeasCharacterCareSpeakLanguageCenturySpeechOrdinaryCriticsEveryday20th CenturyDelightedWordsworth
Author:Louis Auchincloss
Create image

“I don't know enough about the lower classes to write about them. I don't feel with them, and that could be regarded as a defect, a limitation of my imagination. I could put myself in their position, but not politically. The idea of writing a story or a book about somebody completely devoid of appreciation of anything I care about is completely foreign to me.”

KnowsFeelsWritingBookIdeasEnoughStoriesCareImaginationClassPositionAppreciationLimitationI CareDefectsMy ImaginationLower Class
Author:Louis Auchincloss
Create image

“To most readers the word 'fiction' is an utter fraud. They are entirely convinced that each character has an exact counterpart in real life and that any small discrepancy with that counterpart is a simple error on the author's part. Consequently, they are totally at a loss if anything essential is altered. Make Abraham Lincoln a dentist, put the Gettysburg Address on his tongue, and nobody will recognize it.”

IfsWritingRealCharacterLossSimpleFictionReaderEssentialsErrorsTongueConvincedReal LifeAddressesFraudAbrahamAlteredDentistCounterpartsDiscrepanciesGettysburgGettysburg Address
Book:Life, Law, and Letters: Essays and Sketches
Create image