God how I hate new countries: They are older than the old, more sophisticated, much more conceited, only young in a certain puerile vanity more like senility than anything.
D. H. LawrenceRead
I am a man and alive. For this reason I am a novelist. And, being a novelist, I consider myself superior to the saint, te scientist, the philosopher, and the poet, who are all great masters of different bits of man alive, but never get the whole hog....Only in the novel are all things given full play.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the unique ability of the novel to encompass the entirety of human experience.
D. H. Lawrence claims that being a novelist allows one to capture the complete essence of life, unlike other professions that may only address specific aspects of existence. He believes that novels offer a holistic view of what it means to be human, incorporating all emotions, experiences, and truths into a singular narrative form.
Themes
NovelistHuman ExperienceLifeArtLiterature
In practice
Example use cases
In a book club discussion about the role of literature, this quote could demonstrate the novel's unique power.
More from D. H. Lawrence
All quotes βA young man is afraid of his demon and puts his hand over the demon's mouth sometimes and speaks for him. And the things the young man says are very rarely poetry.
D. H. LawrenceRead
And besides, look at elder flowers and bluebells-they are a sign that pure creation takes place - even the butterfly. But humanity never gets beyond the caterpillar stage -it rots in the chrysalis, it never will have wings.It is anti-creation, like monkeys and baboons.
D. H. LawrenceRead
The Christian fear of the pagan outlook has damaged the whole consciousness of man.
D. H. LawrenceRead
The cosmos is a vast living body, of which we are still parts. The sun is a great heart whose tremors run through our smallest veins. The moon is a great nerve center from which we quiver forever. Who knows the power that Saturn has over us, or Venus? But it is a vital power, rippling exquisitely through us all the time.
D. H. LawrenceRead
... he preferred his own madness, to the regular sanity. He rejoiced in his own madness, he was free. He did not want that old sanity of the world, which was become so repulsive. He rejoiced in the new-found world of his madness. It was so fresh and delicate and so satisfying.
D. H. LawrenceRead
Similar quotes
Black artists are encouraged to explore their identity but are then pigeonholed according to their ethnicity. We may have seen the decline of old racism, but we are witnessing a new kind of racialising.
Munira MirzaRead
Think of the magic of that foot, comparatively small, upon which your whole weight rests. It's a miracle, and the dance is a celebration of that miracle.
Martha GrahamRead
A superhuman will is needed in order to write, and I am only a man.
Gustave FlaubertRead
I think it's insulting to an audience to make them sit and watch a film and then give them a message in one sentence.
Asghar FarhadiRead
The moment of inspiration can come from memory, or language, or the imagination, or experience - anything that makes an impression forcibly enough for language to form.
Carol Ann DuffyRead
Beautiful young people are accidents of nature, but beautiful old people are works of art.
Eleanor RooseveltRead