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If epic poetry is a definite species, the sagas do not fall within it.

I'm struggling with what is epic. People decided I was epic - if by epic, do you mean a big, heavy book? 'David Copperfield' is a big book - is it epic? Amount of time covered, length, drama, or story - that's the real appeal - if the story is long you have a better chance of becoming more connected.

I think, in the grand epic, Jesus is the hero of our stories. And our stories, as they were, are subplots in a grand epic and our job is not to be the hero of any story. Our job is to be a saint in a story that he is telling.

The higher Greek poetry did not make up fictitious plots; its business was to express the heroic saga, the myths.

Epic stories, especially 'quest narratives' like 'The Iliad' and 'The Odyssey,' are brilliant structures for storytelling. The quest lends itself to episodic storytelling.

The first epics were intended for recitation; the literary epic is meant to be read.

Storytelling reveals meaning without committing the error of defining it.

The natural milieu I inhabit is more in epic storytelling.

I was never able to write seriously about heroes because I was very aware that I was not one and that in my background there was not this heroic thing.

Any long work in which poetry is persistent, be it epic or drama or narrative, is really a succession of separate poetic experiences governed into a related whole by an energy distinct from that which evoked them.