“Axiom: Novel must have either one living character or a perfect pattern: fails otherwise.”

Part III : Selection on Education from Kant's other Writings, Ch. I Pedagogical Fragments, # 13
The Educational Theory of Immanuel Kant (1904)
Context: There must be a seed of every good thing in the character of men, otherwise no one can bring it out. Lacking that, analogous motives, honor, etc., are substituted. Parents are in the habit of looking out for the inclinations, for the talents and dexterity, perhaps for the disposition of their children, and not at all for their heart or character.

Chin Wag At The Slaughterhouse (2013)
Context: Characters in novels are all fiction like the world they live in. Of course Vivien Lash has things in common with me but if she actually was me I wouldn’t have been able to invent her. And I’m not plotting to murder my husband!
The closest connection between me and my characters is that we live in a city that’s recognisable as London, but it’s a version of London that came out of my head.

Source: Death in the Afternoon (1932), Ch. 16

Reading Lolita in Tehran (2003)

Source: Anarchy, State, and Utopia (1974), Ch. 10 : A Framework for Utopia; Design Devices and Filter Devices, p. 316
Context: Some communities will be abandoned, others will struggle along, others will split, others will flourish, gain members, and be duplicated elsewhere. Each community must win and hold the voluntary adherence of its members. No pattern is imposed on everyone, and the result will be one pattern if and only if everyone voluntarily chooses to live in accordance with that pattern of community.

VII, 69
Source: Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book VII

The Novel: What It Is (1893)

Variant: Sometimes I don't know whether Zelda and I are real or just characters in one of my novels.