A novel is balanced between a few true impressions and the multitude of false ones that make up most of what we call life.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I have tried very hard as a novelist to say, 'Novels are about individuals and especially larger than life individuals.'
Judgments and secrets are what make a good novel.
A novel, even a social realist one, can't simply be a comprehensive rendering of what is. A novel requires a special angle or approach, whether in structure or language or theme, to justify itself.
More often than not, real life is so rich, complex and unpredictable that it would seem completely implausible in the pages of a novel.
Novels attempt to render human experience; that's really all they are. They are meant to convey empathy for the character.
A novel is often a longer process in handling self-doubt.
A novel, I think, is partly about the contemporary and partly about the eternal, and it's the balance of that that's difficult to achieve.
The only reason for the existence of a novel is that it does attempt to represent life.
I think novels are profoundly autobiographical. If writers deny that, they are lying. Or if it's really true, then I think it's a mistake.
Life resembles a novel more often than novels resemble life.