“Great fiction shows us not how to conduct our behavior but how to feel. Eventually, it may show us how to face our feelings and face our actions and to have new inklings about what they mean. A good novel of any year can initiate us into our own new experience.” FeelsYearsMayMeanShowsFeelingsActionFacesFictionNovelBehaviorOur ActionsNew ExperiencesInitiate Book:On Writing Source: On Writing
“Poorly written novels--no matter how pious and edifying the behavior of the characters--are not good in themselves and are therefore not really edifying.” MatterCharacterNovelWrittenBehaviorPious Book:Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose Source: Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose
“You can do everything differently in a novel. Hero narrates the novel; we're in his head. You're hearing all his thought processes and you're hearing him call himself out on his bad behavior. You don't have the benefit of that narrator in a movie. What you see a character do, very often, becomes that much more important because you don't have him editorializing it for you.” ImportantCharacterProcessCan DoNovelHeroBehaviorBenefitsHearingNarratorsThought ProcessBad Behavior Author:Jonathan Tropper
“We have seen that in certain respects operant reinforcement resembles the natural selection of evolutionary theory. Just as genetic characteristics which arise as mutations are selected or discarded by their consequences, so novel forms of behavior are selected or discarded through reinforcement.” FormCertainNaturalNovelTheoryBehaviorConsequenceAriseCharacteristicsSelectionNatural SelectionSelectedDiscardedMutationReinforcement Book:Science And Human Behavior Source: Science And Human Behavior
“Self-reinvention is an essential trope of the American project, closely linked to another such trope: going on the lam. Both are regularly featured in movies and novels and suchlike. Criminals and persons loitering with and without intent hold a crucial place in the culture. For obvious reasons, the culture cannot endorse this behavior, even as it is in thrall to it.” PersonsSelfReasonCultureNovelEssentialsBehaviorProjectsObviousCriminalsCrucialLinkedReinventionTropes Author:Luc Sante
“For a really long time [before writing the novel], I was watching a lot of serial killer movies and I started to wonder if this was a trend and if other people were doing the same thing. That's what happens when you suddenly have a critical perspective on your own behavior.” PeopleIfsWritingLongHappensWonderNovelPerspectiveBehaviorLong TimeCriticalTrendsKillersSerialsSerial KillerReally Long Author:Lucy Corin