Sadness is more or less like a head cold - with patience, it passes. Depression is like cancer.
Barbara KingsolverRead
People in my novels always have terrible problems. If they are not terrible, I make them more terrible.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote highlights the tendency of novelists to create conflict by increasing the difficulties faced by their characters.
Barbara Kingsolver reflects on the nature of storytelling in literature, suggesting that characters in her novels often encounter significant challenges. This emphasis on terrible problems serves to drive the narrative and engage readers, revealing the complexities of human experience and the role of adversity in personal growth and development.
Themes
NovelsProblemsCharactersConflictStorytelling
In practice
Example use cases
In a writing workshop, to discuss character development.
More from Barbara Kingsolver
All quotes βChildren can be your heartache. But that doesn't matter, you have to go on and have them . . . it works out.
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I'm of a fearsome mind to throw my arms around every living librarian who crosses my path, on behalf of the souls they never knew they saved.
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I did it to win love, and to prove myself capable. Not to move mountains. In my opinions, mountains don't move. They only look changed when you look down on them from great height.
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Memory is a complicated thing, a relative to truth, but not its twin.
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Empathy is really the opposite of spiritual meanness. It's the capacity to understand that every war is both won and lost. And that someone else's pain is as meaningful as your own.
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