The two most common charges against the older fiction, that it pleased wickedly and that it taught nothing, had broken down before the discovery, except in illiberal sects, that the novel is fitted both for honest use and for pleasure.

  • -- Carl Clinton Van Doren 卡尔·克林顿·范多伦

人们对老小说最常见的两种指责是,它让人感到邪恶地愉悦,它没有教给人们任何东西,但在人们发现这部小说既适合于正当使用,又适合于娱乐之前,这两种指责就已经站不住脚了。

相关名言

I had everything I'd hoped for, but I wasn't being myself. So I decided to be honest about who I was. It was strange: The people who loved me for being funny suddenly didn't like me for being... me.

我得到了我所希望的一切,但我不再是我自己。所以我决定坦白我是谁。奇怪的是:那些爱我搞笑的人突然不喜欢我搞笑了……我。

A good novel should be deeply unsettling - its satisfactions should come from its authenticity and its formal coherence. We must feel something crucial is at stake.

一部好的小说应该是令人深感不安的——它的满足感应该来自它的真实性和形式上的连贯性。我们必须感觉到一些至关重要的事情正处于危险之中。

You can spend a lifetime, and, if you're honest with yourself, never once was your work perfect.

你可以花一辈子的时间,如果你对自己诚实,你的工作从来没有完美过。

My first novel was a challenge to myself. No one had an inkling that I was working on it.

我的第一部小说对我自己是个挑战。没有人知道我在做这件事。