Ends Quote by Randall Jarrell

A novel is not moral in the usual sense of the word. It can be called moral when it shakes us out of our…

— Azar Nafisi

Novelists are no more moral or certain than anybody else; we are ideologically adrift, and if we are any good then our writing will…

— Andrew O'Hagan

To remain pure, a novel has to cast a moral puzzle. Anything else is mere negotiation.

— Anita Brookner

There was a time when the average reader read a novel simply for the moral he could get out of it, and however na?ve…

— Flannery O'Connor

“Good writers don’t moralize, nor do they preach, but they do create longing for the true and the beautiful.”

— Douglas Bond

The novel as a form is usually seen to be moral if its readers consider freedom, individuality, democracy, privacy, social connection, tolerance and hope…

— Jane Smiley

There are novels that end well, but in between there are human beings acting like human beings. And human beings are not perfect. All…

— Margaret Atwood

If a novel reveals true and vivid relationships, it is a moral work, no matter what the relationships consist in. If the novelisthonours the…

— D. H. Lawrence

The only moral that is of any value is that which arises inevitably from the whole cast of the author's mind.

— C. S. Lewis

I think a novelist must be more tender with living or 'real' people. The moral imperative of having been entrusted with their story looms…

— Rick Bass

Morality for the novelist is expressed not so much in the choice of subject matter as in the plot of the narrative, which is…

— Jane Rule

I get a lot of moral guidance from reading novels, so I guess I expect my novels to offer some moral guidance, but they're…

— Ursula K. Le Guin