The detective novel is the art-for-art's-sake of our yawning Philistinism, the classic example of a specialized form of art removed from contact with the life it pretends to build on. — V. S. Pritchett Copy Share Image
The mark of genius is an incessant activity of mind. Genius is a spiritual greed. — V. S. Pritchett Copy Share
Like many popular best-sellers, he was a very sad and solemn man who took himself too seriously and his art not seriously enough. — V. S. Pritchett Copy Share
The Canadian spirit is cautious, observant and critical where the American is assertive. — V. S. Pritchett Copy Share
It is less the business of the novelist to tell us what happened than to show how it happened. — V. S. Pritchett Copy Share
The detective novel is the art-for-art's-sake of our yawning Philistinism, the classic example of a specialized form of art removed from contact with the… — V. S. Pritchett Copy Share
A short story is. . .frequently the celebration of character at bursting point. — V. S. Pritchett Copy Share
The wrongs of childhood and upbringing have made a large and obsessional contribution to autobiography and the novel. — V. S. Pritchett Copy Share
Prep school, public school, university: these now tedious influences standardize English autobiography, giving the educated Englishman the sad if fascinating appearance of a stuffed… — V. S. Pritchett Copy Share
How extraordinary it is that one feels most guilt about the sins one is unable to commit. — V. S. Pritchett Copy Share
The difference between farce and humour in literature is, I suppose, that farce strums louder and louder on one string, while humour varies its… — V. S. Pritchett Copy Share
On one plane, the very great writers and the popular romancers of the lower order always meet. They use all of themselves, helplessly, unselectively.… — V. S. Pritchett Copy Share
