Julian BarnesWell, they each seem to do one thing well enough, but fail to realize that literature depends on doing several things well at the same time.
About This Quote
The author is referring to the fact that books are written with the intent of entertaining the reader as well as teaching. The writer must be able to write compelling prose while also conveying an idea or message. The author must be able to take their readers on a journey, and then introduce them to a character that will take them on a journey of their own. If the author can accomplish this, they will have succeeded in their goal.
Some Similar Quotes
- This is what love does: It makes you want to rewrite the world. It makes you want to choose the characters, build the scenery, guide the plot. The person you love sits across from you, and you want to do everything in your power to...
- Some moments are nice, some arenicer, some are even worthwritingabout.
- Living with him is like being told a perpetual story: his mind is the biggest, most imaginative I have ever met. I could live in its growing countries forever.
- There comes a time in your life when you have to choose to turn the page, write another book or simply close it.
- When you're missing a peice of yourself, aching, gut wrenching emptiness begins to take over. Until you find the link that completes your very soul, the feeling will never go away. Most people find a way to fill this void, material possessions, a string of...
More Quotes By Julian Barnes
- How often do we tell our own life story? How often do we adjust, embellish, make sly cuts? And the longer life goes on, the fewer are those around to challenge our account, to remind us that our life is not our life, merely the...
- Books say: She did this because. Life says: She did this. Books are where things are explained to you; life is where things aren't. I'm not surprised some people prefer books. Books make sense of life. The only problem is that the lives they make...
- Later on in life, you expect a bit of rest, don't you? You think you deserve it. I did, anyway. But then you begin to understand that the reward of merit is not life's business.
- Though why should we expect age to mellow us? If it isn't life's business to reward merit, why should it be life's business to give us warm, comfortable feelings towards its end? What possible evolutionary purpose could nostalgia serve?
- It's the best way of telling the truth; it's a process of producing grand, beautiful, well-ordered lies that tell more truth than any assemblage of facts. Beyond that … [it's] delight in, and play with, language; also, a curiously intimate way of communicating with people...