Novelist

Explore 912 quotes by Novelists

The war has used up words.

Henry James

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Topic

World War I Horrors of war War

Author

Henry James

Source

Henry James's First Interview The New York Times

Medium

Interview Newspaper

Language

English

Time

1915 1910s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

James, Henry. "Henry James's First Interview," interviewed by Preston Lockwood. New York Times, 21 Mar. 1915

Law is where you buy it in this town.

Raymond Chandler

Farewell, My Lovely

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Topic

Corruption Law

Speaker

Philip Marlowe

Author

Raymond Chandler

Source

Farewell, My Lovely

Medium

Novel

Genre

Detective fiction

Language

English

Time

1940 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Chandler, Raymond. Farewell, My Lovely. Alfred A. Knopf, 1940, ch. 19.

Perhaps, then, there is something to his advice that I should cease looking back so much, that I should adopt a more positive outlook and try to make the best of what remains of my day.

Kazuo Ishiguro

The Remains of the Day

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Topic

Dwelling on the past Making the most

Author

Kazuo Ishiguro

Source

The Remains of the Day

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1989 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Ishiguro, Kazuo. The Remains of the Day. Faber & Faber, 1989.

Daytime sleep is like the sin of the flesh; the more you have the more you want, and yet you feel unhappy, sated and unsated at the same time.

Umberto Eco

The Name of the Rose

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Topic

Naps Sleep

Author

Umberto Eco

Source

The Name of the Rose

Medium

Novel

Language

Italian

Time

1980 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Eco, Umberto. Il nome della rosa [The Name of the Rose]. Bompiani, 1980.

Current Citation

Eco, Humberto. The Name of the Rose, translated by William Weaver. HarperVia, 2014.

Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen.

John Steinbeck

Quoted in Cosmopolitan

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Topic

Ideas Creativity

Speaker

John Steinbeck

Source

Cosmopolitan

Medium

Interview Magazine

Statement Type

Metaphor, analogy and simile

Language

English

Time

1947 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Steinbeck, John. "Interview with a Best-Selling Author: John Steinbeck." Interviewed by Robert van Gelder. Cosmopolitan, Apr. 1947.

Kitsch excludes everything from its purview which is essentially unacceptable in human existence.

Milan Kundera

The Unbearable Lightness of Being

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Topic

Kitsch

Author

Milan Kundera

Source

The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Medium

Novel

Language

Czech

Time

1985 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Kundera, Milan. L'insoutenable légèreté de l'être [The Unbearable Lightness of Being]. Gallimard, 1984.

Current Citation

Kundera, Milan. The Unbearable Lightness of Being, translated by Michael Henry Heim. Harper Perennial, 2009.

The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers,—stern and wild ones,—and they had made her strong, but taught her much amiss.

Nathaniel Hawthorne

The Scarlet Letter

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Topic

Outsiders and outcasts

Author

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Source

The Scarlet Letter

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1850 1850s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter: A Romance. Boston: Ticknor, Reed & Fields, 1850, ch. 18.

Current Citation

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter, edited by Brian Harding. Oxford University Press, 2009, ch. 18.

But what is the sense in forever speculating what might have happened had such and such a moment turned out differently? One could presumably drive oneself to distraction in this way.

Kazuo Ishiguro

The Remains of the Day

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Topic

Dwelling on the past

Author

Kazuo Ishiguro

Source

The Remains of the Day

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1989 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Ishiguro, Kazuo. The Remains of the Day. Faber & Faber, 1989.

Why, America’s the only free nation on earth. Besides! Country’s too big for a revolution. No, no! Couldn’t happen here!

Sinclair Lewis

It Can't Happen Here

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Topic

America American politics Revolution

Speaker

Dr. Fowler Greenhill

Author

Sinclair Lewis

Source

It Can't Happen Here

Medium

Novel

Genre

Dystopian fiction

Language

English

Time

1935 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Lewis, Sinclair. It Can't Happen Here. Doubleday, Doran and Company, 1935, ch. 5.

There is more difference within the sexes than between them.

Ivy Compton-Burnett

Mother and Son

More information about this quote

Topic

Gender relations Men and women

Author

Ivy Compton-Burnett

Source

Mother and Son

Language

English

Time

1955 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Compton-Burnett, Ivy. Mother and Son. Victor Gollancz/Julian Messner, 1955, ch. 10.

This was another of our fears: that Life wouldn't turn out to be like Literature.

Julian Barnes

The Sense of an Ending

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Topic

Disappointment

Author

Julian Barnes

Source

The Sense of an Ending

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

2011 2010s 21st century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Barnes, Julian. The Sense of an Ending. Jonathan Cape/Alfred A. Knopf, 2011, ch. 1.

The morning star always gets wonderful bright the minute before it has to go, doesn't it?

Thornton Wilder

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Topic

Mornings Stars

Author

Thornton Wilder

Source

Our Town

Medium

Play

Genre

Drama (play) Drama

Language

English

Time

1938 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Wilder, Thornton. Our Town. 22 Jan. 1938, McCarter Theatre, Princeton, New Jersey, USA, act 1.

Current Citation

Wilder, Thornton. Our Town: A Play in Three Acts. Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2020, act 1.

A woman can hardly ever choose...she is dependent on what happens to her. She must take meaner things, because only meaner things are within her reach.

George Eliot

Felix Holt, the Radical

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Topic

Oppression of women Women

Speaker

Esther Lyon

Author

George Eliot

Source

Felix Holt, the Radical

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1866 1860s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Eliot, George. Felix Holt, the Radical. Edinburgh: William Blackwood & Sons, 1866, ch. 27.

Current Citation

Eliot, George. Felix Holt, the Radical, edited by Lynda Mugglestone. Penguin Classics, 1995, ch. 27.

A man's dying is more the survivors' affair than his own.

Thomas Mann

The Magic Mountain

More information about this quote

Topic

Death

Author

Thomas Mann

Source

The Magic Mountain

Medium

Novel

Language

German

Time

1924 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Mann, Thomas. Der Zauberberg [The Magic Mountain]. S. Fischer Verlag, 1924, ch. 6.

Current Citation

Mann, Thomas. The Magic Mountain. Everyman's Library, 2005, ch. 6.

There is no real direction here, neither lines of power nor cooperation. Decisions are never really made-at best they manage to emerge, from a chaos of peeves, whims, hallucinations and all around assholery.

Thomas Pynchon

Gravity's Rainbow

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Topic

Management Decisions and choices

Author

Thomas Pynchon

Source

Gravity's Rainbow

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1973 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Pynchon, Thomas. Gravity's Rainbow. Viking Press, 1973.

It hath been often said, that it is not death, but dying, which is terrible.

Henry Fielding

Amelia

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Topic

Dying Fear of death Death

Speaker

Captain William Booth

Author

Henry Fielding

Source

Amelia

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1751 1750s 18th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Fielding, Henry. Amelia. London: Andrew Millar, 1752, bk. 3, ch. 4.

New York: building itself up out of its own disintegration, its inevitable destiny as the city for everyone, energetic, tireless, brutal, murderous city of the entire world, where we all recognize ourselves and see our worst and our best.

Carlos Fuentes

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Topic

New York City

Author

Carlos Fuentes

Source

The Glass Border

Medium

Novel

Language

Spanish

Time

1995 1990s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Fuentes, Carlos. La frontera de cristal [The Crystal Frontier]. Alfaguara, 1995, pt. 7, ch. 2.

The whole purpose of literature... Is the notation of the heart. Style is but the faintly contemptible vessel in which the bitter liquid is recommended to the world.

Thornton Wilder

The Bridge on San Luis Rey

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Topic

Purpose of literature

Author

Thornton Wilder

Source

The Bridge on San Luis Rey

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1927 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Wilder, Thornton. The Bridge of San Luis Rey. Albert & Charles Boni, 1927.

Current Citation

Wilder, Thornton. The Bridge of San Luis Rey. Vintage, 2023.

It strikes me that this may be one of the differences between youth and age: when we are young, we invent different futures for ourselves; when we are old, we invent different pasts for others.

Julian Barnes

The Sense of an Ending

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Topic

Youth vs. old age Youth Old age

Author

Julian Barnes

Source

The Sense of an Ending

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

2011 2010s 21st century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Barnes, Julian. The Sense of an Ending. Jonathan Cape/Alfred A. Knopf, 2011, ch. 2.

Fear prophets, Adso, and those prepared to die for the truth, for as a rule they make many others die with them, often before them, at times instead of them.

Umberto Eco

The Name of the Rose

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Topic

Fanaticism

Speaker

William

Author

Umberto Eco

Source

The Name of the Rose

Medium

Novel

Language

Italian

Time

1980 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Eco, Umberto. Il nome della rosa [The Name of the Rose]. Bompiani, 1980.

Current Citation

Eco, Humberto. The Name of the Rose, translated by William Weaver. HarperVia, 2014.