The novelist's--any writer's--object is to whittle down his meaning to the exactest and finest possible point. What, of course, isfatal is when he does not know what he does mean: he has no point to sharpen.
Elizabeth BowenThe best that an individual can do is to concentrate on what he or she can do, in the course of a burning effort to do it better.
Elizabeth BowenDialogue should convey a sense of spontaneity but eliminate the repetitiveness of real talk.
Elizabeth BowenThe short story is at an advantage over the novel, and can claim its nearer kinship to poetry, because it must be more concentrated, can be more visionary, and is not weighed down (as the novel is bound to be) by facts, explanation, or analysis. I do not mean to say that the short story is by any means exempt from the laws of narrative: it must observe them, but on its own terms.
Elizabeth Bowen