The Living Novel
A source page for quotes linked to V. S. Pritchett.
Related Quotes
“Detective stories are the art-for-art's sake of yawning Philistinism.”
Source: Mr. Beluncle: A Novel
“Those mausoleums of inactive masculinity are places for men who prefer armchairs to women.”
“Queen Victoria - a mixture of national landlady and actress.”
“The mark of genius is an incessant activity of mind. Genius is a spiritual greed.”
“The State, that cawing rookery of committees and subcommittees.”
“I am under the spell of language, which has ruled me since I was 10.”
“It is less the business of the novelist to tell us what happened than to show how it happened.”
Source: The Living Novel
“We do not wish to be better than we are, but more fully what we are.”
Source: The Living Novel
Source: A Man of Letters: Selected Essays
Source: In My Good Books
Source: The Other Side of a Frontier
“A short story is. . .frequently the celebration of character at bursting point.”
“The makers of the short story have rarely been good novelists.”
Source: The Other Side of a Frontier
“How extraordinary it is that one feels most guilt about the sins one is unable to commit.”
“The Canadian spirit is cautious, observant and critical where the American is assertive.”
“Life — how curious is that habit that makes us think it is not here, but elsewhere.”
“Criticism changes with the fashion of the time. A story is always a story.”
Source: The Living Novel
“A touch of science, even bogus science, gives an edge to the superstitious tale.”
“We are used to the actions of human beings, not to their stillness.”
Source: The Other Side of a Frontier
Source: The Living Novel