Books Quote by V. S. Pritchett

“The difference between farce and humour in literature is, I suppose, that farce strums louder and louder on one string, while humour varies its note, changes its key, grows and spreads and deepens until it may indeed reach tragic depths.”

V. S. Pritchett

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Books Depth Differences Farce Funny Grows Humor Humour Keys Literature May Notes Spread Strings Tragic Vary

More by V. S. Pritchett

The mark of genius is an incessant activity of mind. Genius is a spiritual greed.

V. S. Pritchett

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There is more magic in sin if it is not committed.

V. S. Pritchett

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Queen Victoria - a mixture of national landlady and actress.

V. S. Pritchett

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The State, that cawing rookery of committees and subcommittees.

V. S. Pritchett

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Like many popular best-sellers, he was a very sad and solemn man who took himself too seriously and his art not seriously enough.

V. S. Pritchett

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The Canadian spirit is cautious, observant and critical where the American is assertive.

V. S. Pritchett

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It is less the business of the novelist to tell us what happened than to show how it happened.

V. S. Pritchett

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The detective novel is the art-for-art's-sake of our yawning Philistinism, the classic example of a specialized form of art removed from contact with the…

V. S. Pritchett

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A natural New Yorker is a native of the present tense.

V. S. Pritchett

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A short story is. . .frequently the celebration of character at bursting point.

V. S. Pritchett

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The wrongs of childhood and upbringing have made a large and obsessional contribution to autobiography and the novel.

V. S. Pritchett

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Prep school, public school, university: these now tedious influences standardize English autobiography, giving the educated Englishman the sad if fascinating appearance of a stuffed…

V. S. Pritchett