“A story is a way to say something that can't be said any other way, and it takes every word in the story to say what the meaning is. You tell a story because a statement would be inadequate. When anybody asks what a story is about, the only proper thing is to tell them to read the story. The meaning of fiction is not abstract meaning but experienced meaning.” WayWritingSaidStoriesWould BeAsksFictionStatementsAbstractInadequate Book:Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose Source: Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose
“It has always seemed to me that if you could talk about your work in fully-formed phrases, you wouldn't write it. The writing is the statement, you see, and it seems to me that the poem or the story or the novel you write is the kind of metaphor you cast on life.” IfsWritingKindStoriesSeemsNovelCastsMetaphorStatementsPhrases Author:Hortense Calisher