Books Quote by Nicholas Murray
““All deeply good characters in imaginative literature, have to be, as it were, diluted with weakness or eccentricity; for only on such conditions are they comprehensible by readers and expressible by writers. Aldous Huxley””
About This Quote
Source Book: The Art of Fiction, 1915
Characters need flaws or quirks to be relatable and expressive in stories.
In simple terms: Flawed characters are relatable.
Key Takeaway
Add depth with imperfections.
Themes
character development
relatability
literature
Mood
thoughtful
analytical
Type
literary
educational
When to use this quote
- novel writing
- screenwriting
- character analysis
- teaching literature
Key Concepts
psychology
narrative technique
Questions to Reflect On
- How do you balance strength and flaw?
- When does eccentricity become distraction?
A Different Perspective
Flaws may oversimplify or stereotype characters.
![“When people are ready to, they change. They never do it before then, and sometimes they die before they get around to it. You can’t make them change if they don’t want to, just like when they do want to, you can’t stop them. “A man is what he thinks about all day long.” [Ralph Waldo Emerson] Every…” quote by Andy Warhol](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/1a8/andy-warhol-746_every-man_when-people-are-ready-to-they-change-the_582299.jpg)
![“[Huxley's Perennial Philosophy is concerned with] the need to love the earth and respect nature instead of following the example of those who 'chopped down vast forests to provide the newsprint demanded by that universal literacy which was to make the world safe for intelligence and democracy, and…” quote by Nicholas Murray](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/008/nicholas-murray-47677_consumerism_huxley-s-perennial-philosophy-is-concern_815864.jpg)
![“Selfhood is a heavy, hardly translucent medium, which cuts off most of the light of reality and distorts what little it permits to pass.' This is Huxley's central notion [of Grey Eminence], that we should 'stand out of our own light' in order to see the eternal truths.” quote by Nicholas Murray](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/33d/nicholas-murray-47677_huxley_selfhood-is-a-heavy-hardly-translucent-m_3056286.jpg)
