The mark of genius is an incessant activity of mind. Genius is a spiritual greed. — V. S. Pritchett Activity Copy Share Image
Queen Victoria - a mixture of national landlady and actress. — V. S. Pritchett Actresses Copy Share Image
The State, that cawing rookery of committees and subcommittees. — V. S. Pritchett Committees Copy Share Image
Like many popular best-sellers, he was a very sad and solemn man who took himself too seriously and his art not seriously… — V. S. Pritchett Art Copy Share Image
The Canadian spirit is cautious, observant and critical where the American is assertive. — V. S. Pritchett Assertive Copy Share Image
It is less the business of the novelist to tell us what happened than to show how it happened. — V. S. Pritchett Business Copy Share Image
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… — V. S. Pritchett Art Copy Share Image
A short story is. . .frequently the celebration of character at bursting point. — V. S. Pritchett Bursting Copy Share Image
The wrongs of childhood and upbringing have made a large and obsessional contribution to autobiography and the novel. — V. S. Pritchett Autobiography Copy Share Image
Prep school, public school, university: these now tedious influences standardize English autobiography, giving the educated Englishman the sad if fascinating appearance of… — V. S. Pritchett Appearance Copy Share Image
How extraordinary it is that one feels most guilt about the sins one is unable to commit. — V. S. Pritchett Commit Copy Share Image
The difference between farce and humour in literature is, I suppose, that farce strums louder and louder on one string, while humour… — V. S. Pritchett Books Copy Share Image
On one plane, the very great writers and the popular romancers of the lower order always meet. They use all of themselves,… — V. S. Pritchett Giving Copy Share Image
Absolute Evil is not the kingdom of hell. The inhabitants of hell are ourselves, i.e., those who pay our painful, embarrassing, humanistic… — V. S. Pritchett Absolutes Copy Share Image
I am under the spell of language, which has ruled me since I was 10. — V. S. Pritchett Language Copy Share Image
The novel...creates a bemusing effect. The short story, on the other hand wakes the reader up. Not only that, it answers the… — V. S. Pritchett Answers Copy Share Image
I felt the beginning of a passion, hopeless in the long run, but very nourishing, for identifying myself with people who were… — V. S. Pritchett Aliens Copy Share Image
One recalls how much the creative impulse of the best-sellers depends upon self-pity. It is an emotion of great dramatic potential. — V. S. Pritchett Best sellers Copy Share Image
It is exciting and emancipating to believe we are one of nature's latest experiments, but what if the experiment is unsuccessful? — V. S. Pritchett Believe Copy Share Image
A touch of science, even bogus science, gives an edge to the superstitious tale. — V. S. Pritchett Edges Copy Share Image
Those mausoleums of inactive masculinity are places for men who prefer armchairs to women. — V. S. Pritchett Armchairs Copy Share Image
In our family, as far as we are concerned, we were born and what happened before that is myth. — V. S. Pritchett As far as Copy Share Image
The businessman who is a novelist is able to drop in on literature and feel no suicidal loss of esteem if the… — V. S. Pritchett Able Copy Share Image
