“A novel is balanced between a few true impressions and the multitude of false ones that make up most of what we call life.”

— Saul Bellow

Nobel Prize lecture (12 December 1976)
General sources
Context: A novel is balanced between a few true impressions and the multitude of false ones that make up most of what we call life. It tells us that for every human being there is a diversity of existences, that the single existence is itself an illusion in part, that these many existences signify something, tend to something, fulfill something; it promises us meaning, harmony, and even justice.

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Saul Bellow 103

Canadian-born American writer 1915–2005

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“A novel is balanced between a few true impressions and the multitude of false ones that make up most of what we call life.”

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Saul Bellow 103

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