Having the urge to write a novel, especially if you've yet to be published, is like having a medical condition impossible to mention in polite company - it's a relief simply to know there are fellow-sufferers out there.
Interpretation
Writing a novel can feel isolating and burdensome, yet knowing others share this struggle can be comforting.
In this quote, Robert Harris compares the desire to write a novel to a discreet medical condition, suggesting that the longing and challenges faced by aspiring authors are often taboo or difficult to discuss openly. The relief of knowing that others experience similar struggles fosters a sense of camaraderie among writers, making the journey feel less lonely and more validating.
In practice
This quote can be shared in a writer's workshop to encourage aspiring authors.
If one tries to think about history, it seems to me - it's like looking at a range of mountains. And the first time you see them, they look one way. But then time changes, the pattern of light shifts. Maybe you've moved slightly, your perspective has changed. The mountains are the same, but they look very different.
To tell a good story and to illuminate the world: the two things are completely linked. That is the point. That is what I've always wanted to do.
My art will reflect not necessarily conscious politics but the unanalysed politics of my life.
It is in their 'good' characters that novelists make, unawares, the most shocking self- revelations.
I dreamed of having a book of my own, of writing one that I could put on a shelf.
The only important elements in any society are the artistic and the criminal, because they alone, by questioning the society’s values, can force it to change.
You can't improvise without a skeletal structure; you can't just go in and start talking. This is a very misunderstood craft because no one else makes movies like this.
Sometimes I long so much to do landscape, just as one would go for a long walk to refresh oneself, and in all of nature, in trees for instance, I see expression and a soul.
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