Best novel & modern Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings

“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

“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

“Today the crime novelist has one advantage denied to writers of 'straight' or 'literary' novels. Unlike them he can range over all levels of society, for crime can easily breach the barriers that exist in our stratified society. Because of these barriers the modern literary novel, unlike its 19th-century predecessors, is often confined to the horizontal, dealing only with one class. But crime runs through society from top to bottom, and so the crime novelist can present a fuller picture of the way we live now.”

Source: Life & Letters: The Spectator Columns

“We have a thriving subculture of 'independent' American movies that makes an impact on America as a whole roughly equivalent to that of a the modern literary novel. These are the films sincere viewers marry, whereas, once upon a time, movies were a lifetime of one night stands.”

Whole America Film Night Novel Modern Hollywood Independent Impact Lifetime Sincere Viewers One Night Once Upon A Time American Movie One Night Stand Subculture

Author:Edward Jay Epstein

“Modern reformers offer nebulous theories or write philanthropic novels. But your thief acts! He is as clear as a fact and as logical as a punch on the nose! And what a style he has!”

Writing Facts Novel Clear Modern Style Theory Offers Noses Logical Thieves Philanthropic Reformers

Author:Honore de Balzac

“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

“I've got an idea for a modern day faerie tale that I think would made a great short novel. But I just don't have the time to work on it right now. I'm way too busy with the 'Kingkiller Chronicles' and being a new dad.”

Thinking Way Made Ideas Novel Modern Dad Right Now Busy Tales Too Busy Faerie Chronicles Modern Day Great Short

Author:Patrick Rothfuss

“I have some art, but I am a hobbyist. I would not consider myself an expert but in the course of writing this novel I became very familiar with the various movements in American Modern Art from 1900 onwards.”

Writing Art Courses Novel Modern Movement Various Familiar Experts Modern Art

Author:Nicholas Sparks

“The Watch is a powerful tale, courageous both in concept and creation: an ancient tale made modern, passed through different narrators in extraordinary shape-shifting prose that makes this not just an important novel, but a remarkable read.”

Made Important Different Powerful Watches Novel Modern Creation Shapes Concepts Extraordinary Ancient Tales Prose Remarkable Courageous Shifting Narrators

Author:Aminatta Forna

“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.”

“The wildest ride in modern crime novel exoticum. A novel so steeped in milieu that it feels as if you've blasted to mars in the grip of a demon who won't let you go. Read this book, savor the language-it's the last-and the most compelling word in thrillers.”

Ifs Feels Book Lasts Language Novel Modern Crime Demon Compelling Mars Thrillers Letting You Go Milieu Crime Novels

Author:James Ellroy

“I wanted to avoid what some modern tellers have done, quite legitimately, to make fairy tales more like novels and short stories, to characterize the heroes and the heroines much more than they are characterized in Grimm. I like the psychological flatness of them, the fact that they're more like masks than individuals.”

Done Facts Stories Wanted Individual Novel Modern Hero Tales Psychological Fairy Mask Short Story Fairy Tale Heroines Grimm Flatness

Author:Philip Pullman

“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

“When the modern movement began, starting perhaps with the paintings of Manet and the poetry of Baudelaire and Rimbaud, what distinguished the modern movement was the enormous honesty that writers, painters and playwrights displayed about themselves. The bourgeois novel flinches from such notions.”

Novel Modern Honesty Movement Painting Notion Starting Enormous Painter Distinguished Playwright Bourgeois Baudelaire

Author:J. G. Ballard

“While I was drawn to the Renaissance, my first (unpublished) novels took place in modern times. When the subject of alchemy started creeping into my stories, an astute mentor observed that the bits about alchemy might fit better in another time frame. When I finally decided to weave the pieces about the medieval science into historical settings, a successful novel began to emerge. (And I dusted off that art history book, and put it to use once again.)”

“The historical novel gives us perspective on our modern lives and helps us connect with the story, which we are continuing ourselves.”

Giving Helping Stories Novel Modern Perspective Historical Continuing Modern Life Historical Novels

Author:Mary Pope Osborne

“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

“Voltaire's novel [Candid] offers us parallel universes, the possibility of entering into alternative worlds existing side by side, and this is something quite modern. Nested narratives and parallel universes are popular at the moment in many different art forms.”

World Art Different Moments Form Universe Sides Novel Modern Possibility Offers Alternatives Narrative Entering Parallels Candid Parallel Universe

Author:Mark Ravenhill

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