“The novel remains for me one of the few forms where we can record man's complexity and the strength and decency of his longings. Where we can describe, step by step, minute by minute, our not altogether unpleasant struggle to put ourselves into a viable and devout relationship to our beloved and mistaken world.” MenWorldFormStepsNovelStruggleRecordsMinutesRemainsLongingBelovedComplexityMistakenDecency Author:John Cheever
“Very little comes easily to our poor, benighted species (the first creature, after all, to experiment with the novel evolutionary inventions of self-conscious philosophy and art). Even the most "obvious," "accurate," and "natural" style of thinking or drawing must be regulated by history and won by struggle. Solutions must therefore arise within a social context and record the complex interactions of mind and environment that define the possibility of human improvement.” ThinkingMindFirstsHumansLittlesArtSelfPhilosophySocialNaturalPoorNovelStruggleRecordsEnvironmentStylePossibilityCreaturesSolutionsConsciousSpeciesComplexesObviousDrawingImprovementExperimentsInventionAriseInteractionAccurateSelf Conscious Book:Leonardo's Mountain of Clams and the Diet of Worms Source: Leonardo's Mountain of Clams and the Diet of Worms
“Philip Galanes has fashioned a novel both bleak and funny about a young man's struggle to sort out his troubled love: the too-strong love for his mother, the too-weak love for his suicidal father, and the all-consuming love of anonymous sexual encounters. Pointed and acute, this story tells of the narrator's many betrayals of others and their many betrayals of him. It exists in an uncomfortable moral space where the humor of terrible things sometimes outweighs, but never obscures, their poignancy.” MenSometimesStoriesYoungMotherFatherStrongSpaceMoralNovelStruggleTerribleWeakBetrayalUncomfortableYoung ManEncountersSuicidalTerrible ThingsConsumingBleakPhilipNarratorsStrong LovePoignancyConsuming LoveWeak Love Author:Andrew Solomon
“Philip Galanes makes his debut with a novel that is both heartbreaking and deftly comic, the story of a young man struggling with his most primitive desires--wanting and needing. It is a novel about the complex relationships between parents and children, a story of loss and of our unrelenting need for acknowledgment, to be seen as who we are. And in the end it is simply a love story for our time.” MenNeedsChildrenEndsStoriesYoungDesireParentLossNovelStruggleComplexesLove StoryComicYoung ManOur TimeWho We ArePrimitiveHeartbreakingPhilipDebutChildren And ParentsAcknowledgmentUnrelentingComplex Relationships Author:A.M. Homes
“I struggle with confidence, every time. I’m never completely sure I can write another book. Maybe my scope is too grand, my questions too hard, surely readers won’t want to follow me here. A novel is like a cathedral, it knocks you down to size when you enter into it.” WantWritingI CanBookHardNovelStruggleReaderSizeScopeFollow MeCathedrals Author:Barbara Kingsolver
“I always joke that every novel is really about the same thing: one person's struggle against society.” PersonsNovelStruggleJokes Author:Joshua Mohr
“The novelistic attribute of my work is very much like the Russian way of creating novels. Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky - their work has so many gaps. But for the reader, you cannot erase those gaps because they are important. They contextualize the whole struggle. My cinema is like that.” WayImportantWholeNovelStruggleReaderCreatingCinemaGapsAttributesEraseDostoyevsky Author:Lav Diaz
“Now, as a reader, you shouldn't feel the decisions the writer makes about this DNA, or it would be boring beyond belief. But, as a writer, you're struggling to make these decisions. What should the title be? What's the first line? The point of view? And the struggle with the decisions is because you're trying to figure out WHAT IS THE NOVEL, WHAT IS THE NOVEL?” FeelsShouldTryingFirstsWould BeBeliefLinesDecisionViewsNovelStruggleFiguresReaderBoringPoint Of ViewTitlesDna Author:Mary Kay Zuravleff