[My early stories] are the work of a living writer whom I know in a sense, but can never meet.
Elizabeth BowenLove of privacy - perhaps because of the increasing exactions of society - has become in many people almost pathological.
Elizabeth Bowenwriters do not find subjects: subjects find them. There is not so much a search as a state of open susceptibility.
Elizabeth BowenStory involves action. Action towards an end not to be foreseen (by the reader) but also towards an end which, having been reached, must be seen to have been from the start inevitable.
Elizabeth BowenNot only is there no question of solitude, but in the long run we may not choose our company.
Elizabeth BowenEach piece of dialogue MUST be "something happening". . .The "amusing" for its OWN sake should above all be censored. . .The functional use of dialogue for the plot must be the first thing in the writer's mind. Where functional usefulness cannot be established, dialogue must be left out.
Elizabeth Bowen