English - Author | March 17, 1933 -
Every novel generates its own climate, when you get going.
Penelope Lively
YouOwnGoingGetNovelEvery
Conventional forms of narrative allow for different points of view, but for this book I wanted a structure whereby each of the main characters contributed a distinctive version of the story.
BookStoryViewStructureNarrative
The pleasure of writing fiction is that you are always spotting some new approach, an alternative way of telling a story and manipulating characters; the novel is such a wonderfully flexible form.
WritingStoryYouNewFlexibleWay
We all need a past - that's where our sense of identity comes from.
PastIdentityNeedWhereSenseOur
Getting to know someone else involves curiosity about where they have come from, who they are.
CuriositySomeoneKnowWhereCome
Equally, we require a collective past - hence the endless reinterpretations of history, frequently to suit the perceptions of the present.
HistoryPastPresentCollectiveSuit
The present hardly exists, after all-it becomes the past even as it happens. A tricky medium, time - and central to the concerns of fiction.
TimePastPresentFictionHappens
Since then, I have just read and read - but, that said, I suppose there is a raft of writers to whom I return again and again, not so much because I want to write like them, even if I were capable of it, but simply for a sort of stylistic shot in the arm.
SaidWantWriteCapableReturnJust
Copyright © 2024 QuotesDict Penelope Lively quotes