Literary Goal Quotes

I think it is a quest of literature throughout the ages to describe the human condition.

I tried to depict the human face of this history, I wanted to write a book that people would actually want to read.

I'm not trying to convey a message, I'm just trying to tell a story.

I think all writers write for an audience. There is no such thing as writing for yourself.

All writing is propaganda for the self.

You don't write a book to show off.

It is not my purpose as a poet to condemn war (or to be exact, modern warfare). I only wish to present the universal aspects of a particular event.

The purpose of a work of fiction is to appeal to the lingering after-effects in the reader's mind as differing from, say, the purpose of oratory or philosophy which respectively leave people in a fighting or thoughtful mood.

You write, hoping to write a good book; that's it.

A novelist should make you realize nothing is stable. If you don't believe anything with robustness, you're doing something more radical than anything else.

My only job is to write in such a way that the reader gets a new handle on humanity.

Since I can't write the greatest American novel, I'm going to write the longest American novel.

I never wanted to be anything but a writer, and I never let go of it.

I think that anyone who likes writing views 'The New Yorker' as the, you know, pinnacle of the publishing world. If you get 50 words published in 'The New Yorker,' it's more important than 50 articles in other places. So, would I love to one day write for them? I guess. But that's not my sole ambition.

Many writers lay very great stress upon some definite moral purpose, at which they profess to aim their works.

I'm not interested in making a diagnostic novel or a concern. I'm 100 percent committed in fiction to the pleasure principle - that's what fiction is, and should be.