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On one plane, the very great writers and the popular romancers of the lower order always meet. They use all of themselves, helplessly, unselectively. They are above the primness and good taste of declining to give themselves away.

— V. S. Pritchett The Tale Bearers: English and American Writers (1980)

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More quotes by V. S. Pritchett

All great things, in our time, can only be seen in fragments, by fragmentary people.

London Perceived (1962)

Mass society destroys the things it is told are its inheritance.

London Perceived (1962)

Life — how curious is that habit that makes us think it is not here, but elsewhere.

Midnight Oil (1971)

The peculiar foreign superstition that the English do not like love, the evidence being that they do not talk about it.

London Perceived (1962)

One recalls how much the creative impulse of the best-sellers depends upon self-pity. It is an emotion of great dramatic potential.

The Tale Bearers: English and American Writers (1980)

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