The innocent are so few that two of them seldom meet - when they do meet, their victims lie strewn all round.
Elizabeth Bowenevery short story is an experiment - what one must ask is not only, did it come off, but was it, as an experiment, worth making?
Elizabeth BowenThe 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 process of reading is reciprocal; the book is no more than a formula, to be furnished out with images out of the reader's mind.
Elizabeth BowenThe most striking fault in work by young or beginning novelists, submitted for criticism, is irrelevance--due either to infatuation or indecision. To direct such an author's attention to the imperative of relevance is certainly the most useful--and possibly the only--help that can be given.
Elizabeth Bowen