Historian Quote by Goldwin Smith

The novelist must be his own most harsh critic and also his own most loving admirer and about both he must say nothing.

— Angus Wilson

In the following pages I offer nothing more than simple facts, plain arguments, and common sense; and have no other preliminaries to settle with…

— Thomas Paine

A writer without interest or sympathy for the foibles of his fellow man is not conceivable as a writer.

— Joseph Conrad

A great novelist must open the reader's heart, allow the reader to remember the vastness and glory -- and shame and shabbiness -- of…

— Carolyn See

“I think long and carefully about what novels ought to do. They should clarify the roles that have become obscured; they ought to identify…

— Toni Morrison

“There is absolutely everything in great fiction but a clear answer. Humanity itself seems to matter more to the novelist than what humanity thinks…

— Eudora Welty

There is a natural disposition with us to judge an author's personal character by the character of his works. We find it difficult to…

— Edwin Percy Whipple

The historian ought to be the humblest of men; he is faced a dozen times a day with the evidence of his own ignorance;…

— C. V. Wedgwood

“A novelist is like a scout commissioned to go and see what is happening in the depth of the soul. He comes back and…

— Julien Green

“In my opinion the best writer of historical novels. He makes you feel, smell, see every thing he describes in all his books. He…

— Edward Rutherfurd

The writer has a grudge against society, which he documents with accounts of unsatisfying sex, unrealized ambition, unmitigated loneliness, and a sense of local…

— Renata Adler

“He was shy, timid, gentle, and kind, but he wrote gruesome and painful books. He saw the world as full of invisible demons, who…

— Milena Jesenska