Assertion Quote by Milan Kundera

“Literature is disputed territory.”

— Salman Rushdie

“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

The novel is a prose narrative of some length that has something wrong with it.

— Randall Jarrell

But novels are never about what they are about; that is, there is always deeper, or more general, significance. The author may not be…

— Diane Johnson

“A novel must show how the world truly is, how characters genuinely think, how events actually occur. A novel should somehow reveal the true…

— Anonymous

This novel is fiction, except for the parts that aren't.

— Michael Crichton

“Misunderstanding and distrust—the predominant elements of a novel. Without them, everyone lives happily from beginning.”

— Carmen DeSousa

A novel is an impression, not an argument; and there the matter must rest.

— Thomas Hardy

The job of the novel is to be true to the confusion, but not so confusing that you turn the reader off.

— Nicholson Baker

Literature may be false, but it is not trivial.

— Mason Cooley

If a theme or idea is too near the surface, the novel becomes simply a tract illustrating an idea.

— Elizabeth Bowen

The novel does not seek to establish a privileged language but it insists upon the freedom to portray and analyze the struggle between the…

— Salman Rushdie