13 quotes
The aspiring author, whether genius or not, should never let a day pass without writing at least a few lines.
The Art of Writing (1957)
Only passions can raise a man above the level of the animal.
The Art of Writing (1957)
The great classic writers, it will be said, sought rather to proclaim universal truths than to leave their imprint on them.
The Art of Writing (1957)
A great writer has a high respect for values. His essential function is to raise life to the dignity of thought, and this he does by giving it a shape.
The Art of Writing (1957)
One can love a real woman after having loved her imagined counterpart. Similarly, one can adapt oneself to a society which, previously, one held in contempt.
The Art of Writing (1957)
The clear and simple words of common usage are always better than those of erudition. The jargon of the philosophers not seldom conceals an absence of thought.
The Art of Writing (1957)
The old writer, like the old actor, is a master of his craft. Youthfulness of style is no more than a matter of technique.
The Art of Writing (1957)
Almost all the great novels have as their motif, more or less disguised, the "passage from childhood to maturity", the clash between the thrill of expectation, and the disillusioning knowledge of the truth.
The Art of Writing (1957)
Style is the outcome of constraint.
The Art of Writing (1957)
The truth is that, from the immense spectacle of the world, each novelists retains the one adventure which enable shim to give expression to his own essential self, just as the painter sees in nature only pictures painted in his manner.
The Art of Writing (1957)
The really great novel tends to be the exact negative of its author's life. "The characters crowd onto the page", writes Mauriac, "there to accomplish all those things which the personal destiny of the author has kept at bay.
The Art of Writing (1957)
Writing should never be allowed to become a substitute for living. Style cannot breath in a void. It should not be forgotten that Dickens was at one time a reporter, Balzac a lawyer's clerk and Tchekov a county doctor. Art is different from life but cannot exist without it.
The Art of Writing (1957)
The cinema...may have a specific beauty of its own, but it does not permit that constant re-reading, that meditative brooding, those turning-back to passages heavily charged with meaning, which form the special pleasure of the novel-reader.
The Art of Writing (1957)