Books Quote by David Shields Download Open image “The novel is an artifact, which is why antiquarians cling to it so fervently.” — David Shields ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 2.9 out of 5 (9 ratings) Copy quoteShare Books Cling Novel Which Why
The novel is like a melancholy form. It's about some kind of disillusionment with the way things are versus the idea of how they… — Elif Batuman Copy Share Image
“The novel is a hybrid genre and a large part of its charm arises from the alluvial nature of its materials. There is nothing… — Enrique Vila-Matas Copy Share Image
The novel is a prose narrative of some length that has something wrong with it. — Randall Jarrell Copy Share Image
The novel is a formidable mass, and it is so amorphous - no mountain in it to climb, no Parnassus or Helicon, not even… — Anonymous Copy Share Image
My own literary interest is more about excavating the past, or sensing the past inside the present. This requires all kinds of exclusions and… — Teju Cole Copy Share Image
Where the novel makes use of material from my life it does so because it's aesthetically convenient, not because of any allegiance it has… — Garth Greenwell Copy Share Image
A novel, I think, is partly about the contemporary and partly about the eternal, and it's the balance of that that's difficult to achieve. — Salman Rushdie Copy Share Image
The novel is a highly corrupt medium, after all - in the end the vast majority of them simply aren't that great, and are… — Lev Grossman Copy Share Image
The novelist helps us to see things we might not notice otherwise. — Madeleine L'Engle Copy Share Image
“There is a great deal of solemn discussion about The Novel. In fact, every novel is an answer to the ancient plea, 'Tell us… — Pamela Brown Copy Share Image
To be honest, there are parts of 'How Literature Saved My Life' that began as interviews. Someone was telling me that they think the… — David Shields Copy Share Image
I'm very drawn to the way in which a life lived can be an art of sorts or a failed art, and a life-lived-told… — David Shields Copy Share Image
You're one of 6.5 billion people now on the planet, and 99.9 percent of your genes are the same as everyone else's. — David Shields Copy Share Image
We're completely confused about the boundaries between fiction and non-fiction. To me, the moment you compose, you're fictionalising; the moment you remember, you're dreaming.… — David Shields Copy Share Image
Your art is most alive and dangerous when you use it against yourself. That's why I pick at my scabs. — David Shields Copy Share Image
Everything I write, I believe instinctively, is to some extent collage. Meaning, ultimately, is a matter of adjacent data. — David Shields Copy Share Image
Swimming is by far the best tonic I've found for my back. I'm not a good swimmer - I do the breaststroke or elementary… — David Shields Copy Share Image
I've always liked this idea that writing should comfort the afflicted, and afflict the comfortable to create trouble. The value of a work of… — David Shields Copy Share Image
The beauty of reality-based art - art underwritten by reality hunger - is that it's perfectly situated between life itself and (unattainable) "life as… — David Shields Copy Share Image
“A great book allows me to leap over that wall: in a deep, significant conversation with another consciousness, I feel human and unalone.” — David Shields Copy Share Image
I think a new world will arise out of the religious mists when we approach our Bible with the idea that it is not… — Aiden Wilson Tozer Copy Share Image
If I had a dollar for every time I couldn’t sleep, I could buy a billion locks and finally read a book in peace. — Aesop Rock Copy Share Image
If what I write is literature, I guess you'd better emphasize the 'litter.' — Lydia Lunch Copy Share Image
My sentences got sharper and my stories more efficient, and I gradually learned to imagine the reader more clearly and to empathize with that… — Karen Thompson Walker Copy Share Image
Young men, especially in America, write to me and ask me to recommend “a course of reading.” Distrust a course of reading! People who… — Andrew Lang Copy Share Image
“Within the pages of books, I've journeyed to Mandalay, the Milky Way and Santa Fe, without once having to leave my armchair.” — Kevin Ansbro Copy Share Image
“Tacitus did not write a most dangerous book. His readers made it so.” — Christopher K. Krebs Copy Share Image
“Take some books and read; that’s an immense help; and books are always good company if you have the right sort.” — Louisa May Alcott Copy Share Image
Reader, if you are gifted with nerves like mine, aspire to any character but that of a wit. — Charles Lamb Copy Share Image
I have many who keep me going, I am very fortunate in this sense. There is nothing like a child who knows more about… — Floyd Cooper Copy Share Image
I think books in which people are really happy and things are going well are probably the most challenging novels there are to write,… — Anna Quindlen Copy Share Image
