“The Chinese novel was written primarily to amuse the common people. And when I say amuse I do not mean only to make them laugh, though laughter is also one of the aims of the Chinese novel. I mean amusement in the sense of absorbing and occupying the whole attention of the mind. I mean enlightening that mind by pictures of life and what that life means.”

— Pearl S. Buck

The Chinese Novel (1938)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The Chinese novel was written primarily to amuse the common people. And when I say amuse I do not mean only to make the…" by Pearl S. Buck?

Pearl S. Buck 95

American writer 1892–1973

Related quotes

“When I was young I longed to write a great novel that should win me fame. Now that I am getting old my first book is written to amuse children.”

L. Frank Baum (1856–1919) Children's writer, editor, journalist, screenwriter

Personal inscription on a copy of Mother Goose in Prose (1897) which he gave to his sister, Mary Louise Baum Brewster, as quoted in The Making of the Wizard of Oz (1998) by Aljean Harmetz, p. 317
Letters and essays
Context: When I was young I longed to write a great novel that should win me fame. Now that I am getting old my first book is written to amuse children. For aside from my evident inability to do anything "great," I have learned to regard fame as a will-o-the-wisp which, when caught, is not worth the possession; but to please a child is a sweet and lovely thing that warms one's heart and brings its own reward.

“I’m not as intellectual as my daughter. She says bigger words than I … I don’t even know what they mean… But she’s so amusing to me and it’s wonderful to be around her.”

Debbie Reynolds (1932–2016) American actress, singer, and dancer

As quoted in "How Debbie Reynolds and Carrie Fisher Reconciled After a Turbulent Past" By Mike Miller, in People (29 December 2016) http://people.com/movies/how-debbie-reynolds-and-carrie-fisher-reconciled-after-a-turbulent-past/

“Hopelessness means renunciation of all hopes. Aimlessness means renunciation of all aims. Helplessness means renunciation of all help. No master, no disciple, means renunciation of spirituality. And the New Life I have in mind eventually means absolute renunciation. Therefore, if any one asks you what this New Life is, say, 'Absolute and perfect renunciation.' If they ask, 'Renunciation of what?”

Meher Baba (1894–1969) Indian mystic

say, 'Of everything — aims, hopes, help and life itself.
Statement during the New Life period (1949 - 1952), 10:3481
Lord Meher (1986)

“What me worry? I never do
I'm always amused and amusing you”

St. Vincent (musician) (1982) American singer-songwriter

"What Me Worry?"
Paris Is Burning (2006)

“Painting is that pleasant amusement being one of the means whereby we convey ideas to each other.”

Jonathan Richardson (1667–1745) English painter

Essay on the Theory of Painting (1725)

“There is not one big cosmic meaning for all; there is only the meaning we each give to our life, an individual meaning, an individual plot, like an individual novel, a book for each person.”

Anaïs Nin (1903–1977) writer of novels, short stories, and erotica

Source: The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Vol. 1: 1931-1934

“They have not enjoyed the educational and political privileges of the Han chinese, and they are in many respects primitive. But they know the meaning of fidelity, and if I say 'do this, although it means death,' they cheerfully obey.”

Ma Fuxiang (1876–1932) Chinese politician

In the Land of the Laughing Buddha – The Adventures of an American Barbarian in China, Upton Close, 2007, READ BOOKS, 271, 1-4067-1675-8, 440, 2010-06-28 http://books.google.com/books?id=DpQa22PJutwC&dq=arab+mercenaries+china&q=They+have+not+enjoyed+the+educational+and+political+privileges+of+the+Han+chinese%2C+and+they+are+in+many+respects+primitive#v=snippet&q=They%20have%20not%20enjoyed%20the%20educational%20and%20political%20privileges%20of%20the%20Han%20chinese%2C%20and%20they%20are%20in%20many%20respects%20primitive&f=false,

“Be afraid of the Chinese. I mean, the Chinese shoot down satellites in space; they hack into Google's computers; the Osama bin Laden people can't make their underwear blow up.”

Francis Fukuyama (1952) American political scientist, political economist, and author

On The Colbert Report, May 2, 2011, http://www.colbertnation.com/full-episodes/mon-may-2-2011-francis-fukuyama answering the question of who Americans should be scared of now that bin Laden is dead
2010s

“Ordinary people simply don't know what books mean to us, shut up here. Reading, learning, and the radio are our amusements.”

Anne Frank (1929–1945) victim of the Holocaust and author of a diary

Source: The Diary of a Young Girl

“Out of this folk mind, turned into stories and crowded with thousands of years of life, grew, literally, the Chinese novel. For these novels changed as they grew. If, as I have said, there are no single names attached beyond question to the great novels of China, it is because no one hand wrote them. From beginning as a mere tale, a story grew through succeeding versions, into a structure built by many hands.”

Pearl S. Buck (1892–1973) American writer

The Chinese Novel (1938)

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Pearl S. Buck 95

Related quotes

Related topics