Best Modern Novel Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings

“We have turned fiction into a lukewarm mirror, reflecting back at us our most pedestrian fears, anxieties, and quirks—because heaven forbid we be challenged by something we don’t immediately understand. The cult of relatability is suffocating creativity, killing the ambition of the novel, and dragging literature into a pit of shallow, self-referential mediocrity. A bunch of YouTubers armed with syntax.”

Literature Novel Modern Novel

Author:Jay Sreekumar

“Readers have been so conditioned that they feel embarrassed to admit that they find it hard to stomach the work of a literary giant for fear it would betray their plebian taste. The fact is that a few read, and fewer enjoy, the novels of those who sit on the literary pedestal. We have allowed ourselves to be persuaded that a book with a story can't be quite in the same class as a book that leaves us to interpret what is unsaid.”

Reading Novel Story Modern Novel

Book:A Carrot is a Carrot

Source: A Carrot is a Carrot

“The great modern novel of the comic-pathetic illusion of freedom is Confessions of Zeno .”

Novel Modern Illusion Comic Confession Pathetic Illusion Of Freedom Modern Novel

Author:Italo Svevo

“Modern novels have become part of the do-it-yourself business, and they come in a very small number of standard kits. (...) In this wilderness cries the voice of Patrick White, Australian extraordinary, who has quite other, more austere and indeed prophetic ambitions. (...) (H)is failures are certainly the equivalent, and perhaps the measure, of other men's success.”

Men Voice White Numbers Novel Modern Cry Ambition Standards Extraordinary Wilderness Australian Prophetic Do It Yourself Small Numbers Modern Novel

Author:David Pryce-Jones

“Books of quick interest, that hurry on for incidents are for the eye to glide over only. It will not do to read them out. I could never listen to even the better kind of modern novels without extreme irksomeness.”

Kind Book Eye Interest Novel Modern Extremes Incidents Modern Novel

Book:Essays of Elia. Rosamund Gray. Recollections of Chirst's hospital. Essays on the tragedies of Shakspeare [etc.] Letters under assumed signatures published in the Reflector. Curious fragments. Mr. H

Source: Essays of Elia. Rosamund Gray. Recollections of Chirst's hospital. Essays on the tragedies of Shakspeare [etc.] Letters under assumed signatures published in the Reflector. Curious fragments. Mr. H

“In modern novels I try to not let myself get away and to be here, and that's why I write about my life and myself. But even when I do that there's an element of disappearing to a place that's not me. It's "the selflessness of writing". It seldom happens, but when it does it's worth quite a lot.”

Writing Trying Doe Happens Novel Modern Elements Disappear Get Away Selflessness Modern Novel

Author:Karl Ove Knausgard

“Folk-lore means that the soul is sane, but that the universe is wild and full of marvels. Realism means that the world is dull and full of routine, but that the soul is sick and screaming. The problem of the fairy tale is: what will a healthy man do with a fantastic world? The problems of the modern novel is: what will a madman do with a dull world? In the fairy tales the cosmos goes mad; but the hero does not go mad. In the modern novels the hero is mad before the book begins, and suffers from the harsh steadiness and cruel sanity of the cosmos.”

“For being able to use language was a critical skill that could carry one far. One could use it professionally, as a crafter of everything from political speeches to modern novels. One could use it personally, as a tool of discovery or a means of staying connected to others. One could use it as an outlet that would feed the artistic spirit of the creator, which existed in everyone.”

Mean Use Able Political Spirit Language Novel Modern Skills Speech Discovery Tools Creator Connected Critical Artistic Staying Outlets Political Speeches Modern Novel Crafters

Author:Elizabeth George

“At the emergence of the modern novel with Rabelais and Cervantes, all kinds of things were possible in a long-form prose work. Within a couple of hundred years, most of those possibilities were abandoned in favor of a text that efficiently transmitted sentiments.”

Years Kind Long Form Novel Modern Possibility Couple Hundred Favors All Kinds Prose Sentiments Abandoned Emergence Modern Novel

Author:Teju Cole

“I read a lot of detective stories because they always deliver. They give you a beginning, a middle, and an end - a resolution. The modern novels I read don't always deliver because I'm looking essentially for a story. As in Shakespeare, "The play's the thing." In particular I read detective stories for pacing, plot and suspense.”

Giving Ends Play Stories Novel Modern Middle Particular Suspense Plot Resolution Detectives Pacing Detective Stories Modern Novel

Author:Robert Cormier

“Many modern novels have a beginning, a muddle and an end.”

Writing Ends Novel Modern Muddle Modern Novel

Author:Philip Larkin

“A book is sent out into the world, and there is no way of fully anticipating the responses it will elicit. Consider the responses called forth by the Bible, Homer, Shakespeare - let alone contemporary poetry or a modern novel.”

World Way Book Novel Modern Response Contemporary Modern Novel

Author:Chaim Potok

“Does the novel have to deepen the psychology of its heroes? Certainly the modern novel does, but the ancient legends did not do the same. Oedipus' psychology was deduced by Aeschylus or Freud, but the character is simply there, fixed in a pure and terribly disquieting state.”

Doe States Character Novel Psychology Modern Hero Pure Ancient Fixed Legends Oedipus Modern Novel

Author:Umberto Eco

“I also read modern novels - I have just had to read 60 as I am one of the judges for the Orange Fiction Prize.”

Literature Fiction Novel Modern Judging Prize Orange Modern Novel

Author:Kate Adie