novel - quotes

Henry James, 1843-1916

was a British (US -born) author

The only obligation to which in advance we may hold a novel, without incurring the accusation of being arbitrary, is that it be interesting.

W(illiam) Somerset Maugham, 1874-1965

was an English dramatist and novelist

There are three rules for writing the novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.

Ambrose (Gwinnett) Bierce, 1842-1914

was an US author and satirist

NOVEL, n. A short story padded. A species of composition bearing the same relation to literature that the panorama bears to art. As it is too long to be read at a sitting the impressions made by its successive parts are successively effaced, as in the panorama. Unity, totality of effect, is impossible; for besides the few pages last read all that is carried in mind is the mere plot of what has gone before. To the romance the novel is what photography is to painting. Its distinguishing principle, probability, corresponds to the literal actuality of the photograph and puts it distinctly into the category of reporting; whereas the free wing of the romancer enables him to mount to such altitudes of imagination as he may be fitted to attain; and the first three essentials of the literary art are imagination, imagination and imagination. The art of writing novels, such as it was, is long dead everywhere except in Russia, where it is new. Peace to its ashes — some of which have a large sale.

( “The Devil's Dictionary”, 1906 )