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"But there is no doubt that to attempt a novel of ideas is to give oneself a handicap: the parochialism of our culture is intense. For instance, decade after decade bright young men and women emerge from their universities able to say proudly: 'Of course I know nothing about German literature.' It is the mode. The Victorians knew everything about German literature, but were able with a clear conscience not to know much about the French."
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"The best of fiction, as we know, of course, doesn't tell the truth; it tales the truth."
Author Name
Personal Development
"Stories are like children. They grow in their own way."
Author Name
Personal Development
"In great literature, I become a thousand different men but still remain myself."
Author Name
Personal Development
"It is my opinion that a story worth reading only in childhood is not worth reading even then."
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Personal Development
"It is usually unbearably painful to read a book by an author who knows way less than you do, unless the book is a novel."
Author Name
Personal Development
"The literary man re-reads, other men simply read."
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Personal Development
"And she never could remember and ever since that day what Lucy means by a good story is a story which reminds her of the forgotten story in the Magician's Book."
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Personal Development
"One of the most dangerous of literary ventures is the little, shy, unimportant heroine whom none of the other characters value. The danger is that your readers may agree with the other characters."
Author Name
Personal Development
"Like someone excitedly relating a story, only to find the words petering out, the path gets narrower the further I go, the undergrowth taking over."
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Personal Development
"I didn't read so much Japanese literature. Because my father was a teacher of Japanese literature, I just wanted to do something else."
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Personal Development
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"Man, who is he? Too bad, to be the work of God: Too good for the work of chance!"
Work
"In university they don't tell you that the greater part of the law is learning to tolerate fools."
Fool
"Pearls mean tears."
Symbolism
"The great secret that all old people share is that you really haven't changed in seventy or eighty years. Your body changes, but you don't change at all. And that, of course, causes great confusion."
Change
"A simple grateful thought turned heavenwards is the most perfect prayer."
Thought
"In the writing process, the more a story cooks, the better."
Writing
"That is what learning is. You suddenly understand something you've understood all your life, but in a new way."
Life
"It is terrible to destroy a person's picture of himself in the interests of truth or some other abstraction."
Truth
"Any human anywhere will blossom in a hundred unexpected talents and capacities simply by being given the opportunity to do so."
Opportunity
"There are no laws for the novel. There never have been, nor can there ever be."
Law
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