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Quotes by Novelist
"At first my publisher had reservations about publishing it in the form you are familiar with."
77
"Believe those who are seeking the truth. Doubt those who find it."
77
"All great literature is one of two stories, a man goes on a journey or a stranger comes to town."
77
"Between Countess Nordston and Levin there had been established those relations, not infrequent in society, in which two persons, while ostensibly remaining on friendly terms, are contemptuous of each other to such a degree that they cannot even treat each other seriously and cannot even insult each one another."
77
"It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to, than I have ever known."
77
"To be hated cordially, is only a left-handed compliment."
77
"But to think there was meaning, a scheme to things, well, that was quite beyond her philosophical reach. She feared as she always had, that all that was ever meant was loneliness, hard work, striving to make a difference when no difference could possibly be made. It was like dipping a stick into the ocean and trying to write something " all the little people of the world spinning out little patterns that lasted no more than a few years, and meant nothing at all."
76
"The enemy is anybody who's going to get you killed, no matter which side he's on."
76
"A conversation is a dialogue, not a monologue. That's why there are so few good conversations: due to scarcity, two intelligent talkers seldom meet."
76
"To the last, I grapple with thee; From Hell's heart, I stab at thee; For hate's sake, I spit my last breath at thee."
76
"It might be a good idea if, like the White Queen, we practiced believing six impossible things every morning before breakfast, for we are called on to believe what to many people is impossible. Instead of rejoicing in this glorious "impossible" which gives meaning and dignity to our lives, we try to domesticate God, to make his might actions comprehensible to our finite minds."
76
"That is the hardest thing of all. It is much harder to judge yourself than to judge others. If you succeed in judging yourself, it's because you're truly a wise man."
76
"Never, never marry, my friend. Here's my advice to you: don't marry until you can tell yourself that you've done all you could, and until you've stopped loving the woman you've chosen, until you see her clearly, otherwise you'll be cruelly and irremediably mistaken. Marry when you're old and good for nothing. Otherwise all that's good and lofty in you will be lost."
76
"In the struggle between yourself and the world, side with the world."
76
"To be fully seen by somebody, then, and be loved anyhow - this is a human offering that can border on miraculous."
76
"I worship her, Alyosha, worship her. Only she doesn't see it. No, she still thinks I don't love her enough. And she tortures me, tortures me with her love. The past was nothing! In the past it was only that infernal body of hers that tortured me, but now I've taken all her soul into my soul and through her I've become a man. Will they marry us? If they don't I will die of jealousy. I imagine something every day..."
75
"A professional writer is an amateur who didn't quit."
75
"Happiness always looks small while you hold it in your hands, but let it go, and you learn at once how big and precious it is."
75
"Each book, intuitively sensed and, in the case of fiction, intuitively worked out, stands on what has gone before, and grows out of it. I feel that at any stage of my literary career it could have been said that the last book contained all the others."
75
"The tendency of democracies is, in all things, to mediocrity."
75
"Seek not that your sons and your daughters should not see visions, should not dream dreams; seek that they should see true visions, that they should dream noble dreams. Such out-going of the imagination is one with aspiration, and will do more to elevate above what is low and vile than all possible inculcations of morality."
75
"For our vanity is such that we hold our own characters immutable, and we are slow to acknowledge that they have changed, even for the better."
75
"Creativity itself doesn't care at all about results - the only thing it craves is the process. Learn to love the process and let whatever happens next happen, without fussing too much about it. Work like a monk, or a mule, or some other representative metaphor for diligence. Love the work. Destiny will do what it wants with you, regardless."
74
"And though Remi was having worklife problems and bad lovelife with a sharp-tongued woman, he at least had learned to laugh almost better than anyone in the world, and I saw all the fun we were going to have in Frisco."
74
"You have a... remarkable memory.""I remember everything about you. You're the one who wasn't paying attention."
74
"Do something instead of killing time. Because time is killing you."
74
"Injections are the best thing ever invented for feeding doctors."
73
"I'm not a very good writer, but I'm an excellent rewriter."
73
"In order to forgive, one must have lived through what I have lived through, and may God spare her that."
73
"I would not have traded the delights of my suffering for anything in the world."
73
"It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him."
73
"Any real change implies the breakup of the world as one has always known it, the loss of all that gave one an identity, the end of safety. And at such a moment, unable to see and not daring to imagine what the future will now bring forth, one clings to what one knew, or dreamed that one possessed. Yet, it is only when a man is able, without bitterness or self-pity, to surrender a dream he has long possessed that he is set free - he has set himself free - for higher dreams, for greater privileges."
73
"The worth of a gift lies as much in the way it is offered as in its intrinsic value."
73
"Courage is never to let your actions be influenced by your fears."
73
"It is literature which for me opened the mysterious and decisive doors of imagination and understanding. To see the way others see. To think the way others think. And above all, to feel."
73
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