Fiction and the Figures of Life Quotes

“Works of art are meant to be lived with and loved, and if we try to understand them, we should try to understand them as we try to understand anyone—in order to know them better, not in order to know something else.”
― William H. Gass, Fiction and the Figures of Life

“It is not a single cowardice that drives us into fiction's fantasies. We often fear that literature is a game we can't afford to play — the product of idleness and immoral ease. In the grip of that feeling it isn't life we pursue, but the point and purpose of life — its facility, its use.”
― William H. Gass, Fiction and the Figures of Life

“The novel does not say, it shows; it shows me my life in a figure: it compels me to stare at my toes.”
― William H. Gass, Fiction and the Figures of Life