--- title: "1 Fiction Kind Quotes By James Wood" description: "1 Fiction Kind quotes by James Wood. Plus more from James Wood and more Fiction Kind sayings from other authors." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/897/james-wood-31847_books_fiction-is-most-effective-when-its-theme_2172788.jpg" --- > [“Fiction is most effective when its themes are unspoken. An ideal fiction has a kind of thematic ghostliness, whereby the novel marks its meanings most strongly as it passes, as it disappears, rather as on a street snow gets dirtier,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-wood/fiction-is-most-effective-when-its-themes-are-unspoken-an-ideal/) [James Wood](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-wood/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/897/james-wood-31847_books_fiction-is-most-effective-when-its-theme_2172788.jpg) ## More by James Wood > [“There is this strangeness of a life story having no shape—or more accurately, nothing but its present—until it has its ending; and then suddenly…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-wood/there-is-this-strangeness-of-a-life-story-having-no-shape-or-more/) [James Wood](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-wood/) > [“Everything has always been permitted, even when God was around. God has nothing to do with it.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-wood/everything-has-always-been-permitted-even-when-god-was-around-god-has/) [James Wood](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-wood/) > [“Melville, in his relation to belief, was like the last guest who cannot leave the party; he was always returning to see if he…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-wood/melville-in-his-relation-to-belief-was-like-the-last-guest-who-cannot/) [James Wood](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-wood/) > [“When I talk about free indirect style I am really talking about point of view, and when I talk about point of view I…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-wood/when-i-talk-about-free-indirect-style-i-am-really-talking-about-point/) [James Wood](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-wood/) > [“Life, then will, always contain an inevitable surplus, a margin of the gratuitous, a realm in which there is always more than we need:…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-wood/life-then-will-always-contain-an-inevitable-surplus-a-margin-of-the/) [James Wood](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-wood/) > [“Kazuo Ishiguro, the New Nobel Laureate, Has Supremely Done His Own Kind of Thing”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-wood/kazuo-ishiguro-the-new-nobel-laureate-has-supremely-done-his-own-kind/) [James Wood](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-wood/) > [“fiction is both artifice and verisimilitude, and that there is nothing difficult in holding together these two possibilities.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-wood/fiction-is-both-artifice-and-verisimilitude-and-that-there-is-nothing/) [James Wood](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-wood/) > [“This is merely another definition of dramatic irony: to see through a character’s eyes while being encouraged to see more than the character can…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-wood/this-is-merely-another-definition-of-dramatic-irony-to-see-through-a/) [James Wood](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-wood/) > [“The acquisition of a book signalled not just the potential acquisition of knowledge but also something like the property rights to a piece of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-wood/the-acquisition-of-a-book-signalled-not-just-the-potential/) [James Wood](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-wood/) > [“They believed that this world was fallen but that restitution would be provided elsewhere, in an afterlife. I believed that this world was fallen…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-wood/they-believed-that-this-world-was-fallen-but-that-restitution-would/) [James Wood](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-wood/) > [“Even the apparently unreliable narrator is more often than not reliably unreliable. Think of Kazuo Ishiguro’s butler in The Remains of the Day, or…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-wood/even-the-apparently-unreliable-narrator-is-more-often-than-not/) [James Wood](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-wood/) > [“Literature differs from life in that life is amorphously full of detail, and rarely directs us toward it, wheras literature teaches us to notice.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-wood/literature-differs-from-life-in-that-life-is-amorphously-full-of/) [James Wood](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-wood/) > [“Fiction is most effective when its themes are unspoken. An ideal fiction has a kind of thematic ghostliness, whereby the novel marks its meanings…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-wood/fiction-is-most-effective-when-its-themes-are-unspoken-an-ideal/) [James Wood](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-wood/) > [“Perhaps this is what Henry James meant when he talked about the “irresponsibility” of characters. Characters are irresponsible, art is irresponsible when compared to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-wood/perhaps-this-is-what-henry-james-meant-when-he-talked-about-the/) [James Wood](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-wood/) > [“If religion is true, one must believe. And if one chooses not to believe, one’s choice is marked under the category of a refusal,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-wood/if-religion-is-true-one-must-believe-and-if-one-chooses-not-to/) [James Wood](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-wood/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "ItemList", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/fiction-kind/james-wood/#itemlist", "name": "1 Fiction Kind Quotes By James Wood", "numberOfItems": 1, "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“Fiction is most effective when its themes are unspoken. 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