The idea of some people being less than people is poison to any society and needs to be named as such in order to halt its spread before it turns the soul of a society septic.
Richard FlanaganRead
After writing a novel, what is there to say? If a novelist could say it in a maxim, they wouldn't need 120,000 words, several years and sundry characters, plots and subplots, and so on. I'd much rather listen always.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote suggests that the depth and complexity of a novel cannot be encapsulated in a simple saying.
Richard Flanagan's quote reflects on the intricate nature of novel writing, emphasizing that a simple maxim cannot convey the full experience of a story, which often requires extensive narrative development to explore themes, characters, and the human condition. It suggests a preference for listening and experiencing stories rather than trying to summarize them in brief phrases.
Themes
NovelWritingStorytellingArtLiterature
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a discussion about the art of writing novels during a literary workshop.
More from Richard Flanagan
All quotes →I never know what I am writing. The moment you know what you're writing, you're writing nothing worth reading.
Richard FlanaganRead
My father was a Japanese prisoner of war, a survivor of the Thai-Burma Death Railway, built by a quarter of a million slave labourers in 1943. Between 100,000 and 200,000 died.
Richard FlanaganRead
If 30 Australians drowned in Sydney Harbour, it would be a national tragedy. But when 30 or more refugees drown off the Australian coast, it is a political question.
Richard FlanaganRead
Is it easier for a man to live his life again as a fish, than to accept the wonder of being human? So alone, so frightened, so wanting for what we are afraid to give tongue to.
Richard FlanaganRead
I do not share the pessimism of the age about the novel. They are one of our greatest spiritual, aesthetic and intellectual inventions. As a species it is story that distinguishes us, and one of the supreme expressions of story is the novel. Novels are not content. Nor are they are a mirror to life or an explanation of life or a guide to life. Novels are life, or they are nothing.
Richard FlanaganRead
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