The more research you do, the more at ease you are in the world you're writing about. It doesn't encumber you, it makes you free.
A. S. ByattRead
If a novelist tells you something she knows or thinks, and you believe her, that is not because either of you think she is God, but because she is doing her work - as a novelist.
Interpretation
A novelist's truth is rooted in their craft, not in divinity.
This quote highlights the idea that the connection and belief readers have with a novelist's work stem from the author's authentic representation of their knowledge and thoughts through storytelling. It emphasizes the role of the novelist as a professional creator rather than a divine figure, suggesting that the value of their work is in their dedication to craft and the truth they convey through it.
In practice
In a speech about the importance of literature, one might use this quote to emphasize the value of the author's perspective.
The more research you do, the more at ease you are in the world you're writing about. It doesn't encumber you, it makes you free.
It's because I'm a feminist that I can't stand women limiting other women's imaginations. It really makes me angry.
Why do we take pleasure in gruesome death, neatly packaged as a puzzle to which we may find a satisfactory solution through clues - or if we are not clever enough, have it revealed by the all-powerful tale-teller at the end of the book? It is something to do with being reduced to, and comforted by, playing by the rules.
Never stop paying attention to things. Never make your mind up finally. Do not hold beliefs.
Only write to me, write to me, I love to see the hop and skip and sudden starts of your ink.
I am a creature of my pen. My pen is the best of me.
Adapting a novel is not really about being faithful to every word and every moment the author has created. It's more about that same story being filtered through somebody else's sensibility.
A poem begins as a lump in the throat, a sense of wrong, a homesickness, a lovesickness.
People like Dick Gregory, Paul Robeson, Harry Belafonte and Nina Simone show me what the definition of an artist is - it isn't just to make art but to speak truth to what's happening, speak beauty into the world, speak love into the world and also... get involved.
I believe in living with the camera, and not using the camera.
Americans want beauties, not me. I’m not the Parisian bombshell they expected. Can you see me as a chorus girl? Where’s my feather up the ass? They think I’m sad, they’re dumb. I don’t connect to them
Every time you work, you have to do it all over again, to rid yourself of this dross. I suppose for a person who is not an artist or not attempting art, it is not dross, because it is the common exchange of everyday life.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.