The novel is a kind of elephant. But I like to make that elephant dance on a quarter.
Goodreads.com. (2019). John Banville Quotes (Author of The Sea). [online] Available at: https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/91.John_Banville [Accessed 8 Dec. 2019].
Fictional characters are made of words, not flesh; they do not have free will, they do not exercise volition. They are easily born, and as easily killed off.
Goodreads.com. (2019). John Banville Quotes (Author of The Sea). [online] Available at: https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/91.John_Banville [Accessed 8 Dec. 2019].
It seems to me a work of art is the evidence offered by a fantastically observant witness.
Goodreads.com. (2019). John Banville Quotes (Author of The Sea). [online] Available at: https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/91.John_Banville [Accessed 8 Dec. 2019].
For me, a line has to sing before it does anything else. The great thrill is when a sentence that starts out being completely plain suddenly begins to sing, rising far above itself and above any expectation I might have had for it. That’s what keeps me going on those dark December days when I think about how I could be living instead of writing.
Goodreads.com. (2019). John Banville Quotes (Author of The Sea). [online] Available at: https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/91.John_Banville [Accessed 8 Dec. 2019].
Memory is imagination, and imagination is memory. I don’t think we remember the past, we imagine it. We take a few props with us into the future, and out of those props we make a model, some stage set, and that’s our version of the past. Of course models decay, and they change. And so we’re constantly reshaping the past. Because the past is us. The past is our foundation.
Goodreads.com. (2019). John Banville Quotes (Author of The Sea). [online] Available at: https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/91.John_Banville [Accessed 8 Dec. 2019].
The sentence is the great invention of civilization. To sit all day long assembling these extraordinary strings of words is a marvelous thing. I couldn’t ask for anything better. It’s as near to godliness as I can get.
Goodreads.com. (2019). John Banville Quotes (Author of The Sea). [online] Available at: https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/91.John_Banville [Accessed 8 Dec. 2019].
