A novel should tell a story, be a pleasure to read, and at the same time it should be thought-provoking, even a bit instructive.
Interpretation
A novel should entertain and stimulate thought simultaneously.
This quote emphasizes the dual role of a novel: to provide enjoyment while also provoking reflection and imparting lessons. It highlights the balance that storytelling must achieve between being engaging and offering deeper insights into life or human nature.
In practice
In a book club, discussing how the latest read challenged your perspective.
But the fact is we did have colonies in the east of Poland, we did have a slave economy there. But this is not common knowledge - or part of our national myth. It goes against the current romanticised view of the government, and much of the country, that Poles have always been victims, never oppressors.
My books are not 'political.' I don't make political demands. They actually describe life. But when we look at human life, politics creeps in everywhere.
I think that first-person narration is very characteristic of contemporary optics, in which the individual performs the role of subjective center of the world.
The world is a fabric we weave daily on the great looms of information, discussions, films, books, gossip, little anecdotes.
I first read Sigmund Freud's 'Beyond the Pleasure Principle' as a young girl, and it helped me to understand that there are thousands of possible ways to interpret our experience, that everything has a meaning, and that interpretation is the key to reality. This was the first step to becoming a writer.
Well-written novels make you more empathetic towards other people. You can identify with someone who isn't you. You can change your identity. A 14-year-old boy can become Anna Karenina. It is a miracle.
I'm the oldest son of a crazy man, I'm in a cowboy band.
Elmore James only knew one lick, but you had the feeling that he meant it.
Not for a moment, beautiful aged Walt Whitman, have I failed to see your beard full of butterflies.
I don't profess to have music as my big wheel and there are a number of other things as important to me apart from music. Theatre and mime, for instance.
I don't think you can create art out of anger; it has to come out of some form of understanding. You have to feel good about who you are and that you could do something to change things.
When writing loses touch with the beautiful surface of the world, it loses its way. You always want to be in touch with how things look and what people say and what they call their dogs.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.