The function of the novel is the exploration of the human condition. Really, that's what it's all about. — Patrick O'Brian Copy Share Image
Since I grew up, I have never deliberately used any technique at all other than the physical shaping of my tale so… — Patrick O'Brian Copy Share Image
About my books, that's all that I think the public has, in its normal way, to know. My private life is, by… — Patrick O'Brian Copy Share Image
After all a book can be represented as a conversation with one’s demon. — Patrick O'Brian Copy Share Image
“I read novels with the utmost pertinaity. I look upon them - I look upon good novels - as a very valuable… — Patrick O'Brian Copy Share Image
But the tale or narrative set in the past may have its particular time-free value; and the candid reader will not misunderstand… — Patrick O'Brian Copy Share Image
... it has always seemed to me that books are the supreme decorations of a room — Patrick O'Brian Copy Share Image
“Martin was a thoroughly amiable man, a man of wide reading, but when he came to write he mounted upon a pair… — Patrick O'Brian Copy Share Image
Sir,’ said Stephen, ‘I read novels with the utmost pertinacity. I look upon them--I look upon good novels--as a very valuable part… — Patrick O'Brian Copy Share Image
“The author says that when an angry impulse is not immediately expressed, it turns to melancholy.” — Patrick O'Brian Copy Share Image
The first interviews I gave were entirely unpleasant. You have people trying to trip you up with impolite questions that have nothing… — Patrick O'Brian Copy Share Image
“Since then he has said nothing and although from time to time I have thrown out what I hope were delicate hints… — Patrick O'Brian Copy Share Image
I've never set out to seduce my reader. I don't see him at all clearly. — Patrick O'Brian Copy Share Image
“Christ's blood in heaven, you ignorant, incompetent whey-faced nestlecock, do you think I am a hired spy, an informer? That I have a master,… — Patrick O'Brian Copy Share Image
“To tell the truth, sir, I believe I had rather sit in the shelter for a while. The cabbage seems to have turned my… — Patrick O'Brian Copy Share Image
“Never mind the disappointment. Salt water will wash it away. You will be amazed how unimportant it will seem in a week’s time –… — Patrick O'Brian Copy Share Image
“The weather had freshened almost to coldness, for the wind was coming more easterly, from the chilly currents between Tristan and the Cape; the… — Patrick O'Brian Copy Share Image
“Of course I do know it is the French who are so wicked; but there are all these people who keep coming and going… — Patrick O'Brian Copy Share Image
My wife and I have spent most of our lives in France, and we are both pretty well bilingual, my wife more purely than… — Patrick O'Brian Copy Share Image
“This short watch that is about to come, or rather these two short watches--why are they called dog watches? Where, heu, heu, is the… — Patrick O'Brian Copy Share Image
The function of the novel is the exploration of the human condition. Really, that's what it's all about. — Patrick O'Brian Copy Share Image
It is a great while since I felt the grind of bone under my saw,' he added, smiling with anticipation. — Patrick O'Brian Copy Share Image
“But I will tell you another misery that is not to be denied. In the common, natural course of events physicians, surgeons and apothecaries… — Patrick O'Brian Copy Share Image
“Yet,'said Maturin, pursuing his own thought, 'there is a quality in dogs, I must confess, rarely to be seen elsewhere and that is affection:… — Patrick O'Brian Copy Share Image
