Quotessence
Home / Quotes / Quote by Saul Bellow

Quote by Saul Bellow

Work

Conversations with Saul Bellow

This book features in-depth conversations with Saul Bellow, exploring his literary career, writing process, and personal insights. The discussions delve into his thoughts on various aspects of his work, including his characters, themes, and influences. more

Author

Saul Bellow
Saul Bellow

Saul Bellow, born on June 10, 1915, in Canada, was an American Jewish writer. His works are known for their profound psychological insights and unique sense of humor. Bellow won the Nobel Prize in Literature. His representative works include 'Herzog', 'The Adventures of Augie March', and 'Henderson the Rain King'. more

You May Also Like

“Yes sir. You can be more careless, you can put more trash in [a novel] and be excused for it. In a short story that's next to the poem, almost every word has got to be almost exactly right. In the novel you can be careless but in the short story you can't. I mean by that the good short stories like Chekhov wrote. That's why I rate that second - it's because it demands a nearer absolute exactitude. You have less room to be slovenly and careless. There's less room in it for trash.”

“The complete novelist would come into the world with a catalog of qualities like this. He would own the concentration of a Trappist monk, the organizational ability of a Prussian field marshal, the insight into human relations of a Viennese psychologist, the discipline of a man who prints the Lord's Prayer on the head of a pin, the exquisite sense of timing of an Olympic gymnast, and by the way, a natural instinct and flair for exceptional use of language.”