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Novel Quotes

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Novel Quotes

“The aim of poetry, it appears, is to fill the mind with lofty thoughts--not to give it joy, but to give it a grand and somewhat gaudy sense of virtue. The essay is a weapon against the degenerate tendencies of the age. The novel, properly conceived, is a means of uplifting the spirit; its aim is to inspire, not merely to satisfy the low curiosity of man in man.”

Source: H.L. Mencken: Prejudices: First, Second, and Third Series

“It cannot but be injurious to the human mind never to be called into effort: the habit of receiving pleasure without any exertion of thought, by the mere excitement of curiosity, and sensibility, may be justly ranked among the worst effects of habitual novel-reading.”

Mind Humans May Reading Pleasure Effort Novel Worst Effects Habit Mere Curiosity Excitement Human Mind Receiving Sensibility Habitual Exertion

Book:The works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Source: The works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge

“The 'information novel' shouldn't be a curiosity. It should be absolutely mainstream.”

Should Novel Information Curiosity Mainstream

Author:Richard Powers

“The impulse of the journalist is to be novel, yet to relate his curiosities to the urgencies of the moment; the philosopher seeks what he conceives to be true, regardless of the moment.”

Moments Novel Curiosity Philosopher Being True Relate Impulse Journalist Urgency

Book:The End of Ideology: On the Exhaustion of Political Ideas

Source: The End of Ideology: On the Exhaustion of Political Ideas

“If you had told me twenty years ago that I would write a novel set in Russia, much less two, I simply wouldn't have believed you. I had no familiarity with Russia or its history, but part of what drives me as a reader, and more and more as a writer, is curiosity, the desire to explore unfamiliar terrain and inhabit alternate lives.”

Ifs Writing Years Two Desire Novel Reader Years Ago Twenties Curiosity Russia Familiarity Unfamiliar Terrain

Author:Debra Dean

“Experimental novels are sometimes terribly clever and very seldom read. But the story that appeals to the child sitting on your knee is the one that satisfies the curiosity we all have about what happened then, and then, and then. This is the final restriction put on the technique of telling a story. A basic thing called story is built into the human condition. It's what we are; it's something to which we react.”

Humans Children Sometimes Stories Novel Happened Conditions Sitting Built Finals Curiosity Technique Clever Appeals Knees Human Condition Restriction Basic Things

Author:William Golding