AtomicQuote

Richard Flanagan Quote

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 Flanagan

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.

Tags: literature, novel

Related Quotes

He had an answer to almost everything and he retired at an early age.

Dejan Stojanovic

He had an answer to almost everything and he retired at an early age.

Tags: age, answer, answers, dejan stojanovic, early age, literature, poetry, retirement, thoughts, wisdom

It is usually unbearably painful to read a book by an author who knows way less than you do, unless the book is a novel.

Mokokoma Mokhonoana

It is usually unbearably painful to read a book by an author who knows way less than you do, unless the book is a novel.

Tags: acceptable, accomplishment, account, accounts, adeptness, admissible, agony, aphorism, aphorisms, aphorist

Use the wings of the flying Universe, Dream with open eyes; See in darkness.

Dejan Stojanovic

Use the wings of the flying Universe, Dream with open eyes; See in darkness.

Tags: darkness, dejan stojanovic, dreams, flying, literature, open eyes, poetry, to live by, see, thoughts

There is no competition of sounds between a nightingale and a violin.

Dejan Stojanovic

There is no competition of sounds between a nightingale and a violin.

Tags: competition, dejan stojanovic, literature, nightingale, poetry, sound, sounds, thoughts, violin, wisdom

Why fear death? It is the most beautiful adventure in life.

Charles Frohman

Why fear death? It is the most beautiful adventure in life.

Tags: fear, beautiful, books, dark, gavriel, holly black, literature, paranormal, paranormal romance, romance

I became an artist because I wanted to be an active participant in the conversation about art.

Kamand Kojouri

I became an artist because I wanted to be an active participant in the conversation about art.

Tags: active, actor, actress, aesthetics, applied arts, art, art criticism, art history, artist, artwork

Some writers write to forget. Some forget to write.

Mokokoma Mokhonoana

Some writers write to forget. Some forget to write.

Tags: advice, advice for writers, advice to writers, amwriting, aphorism, aphorisms, book, books, daily ritual, daily rituals

To write good poems is the secret of brevity.

Dejan Stojanovic

To write good poems is the secret of brevity.

Tags: brevity, dejan stojanovic, literature, poems, poetry, to live by, secret, thoughts, wisdom, writing

She might not have read many books. But when she reads a book, she swallows the very words. If you open the books on her shelves, you will find that the front and back covers encase white pages.

Kamand Kojouri

She might not have read many books. But when she reads a book, she swallows the very words. If you open the books on her shelves, you will find that the front and back covers encase white pages.

Tags: author, book, book addict, book addiction, book cover, book lover, cover, creative writing, cute, encase

Cliches are the viruses that infect your writing with diseases.

Pawan Mishra

Cliches are the viruses that infect your writing with diseases.

Tags: aspiring writers, authors, books, cliches, creative writing, fiction, fundamentals of creative writing, fundamentals of writing, literature, on writing
About Richard Flanagan

Richard Miller Flanagan (born 1961) is an Australian writer, who has also worked as a film director and screenwriter. He won the 2014 Man Booker Prize for his novel The Narrow Road to the Deep North.
Flanagan was described by the Washington Post as "one of our greatest living novelists".
"[C]onsidered by many to be the finest Australian novelist of his generation", according to The Economist, the New York Review of Books described Flanagan as "among the most versatile writers in the English language".