“A novel that does not uncover a hitherto unknown segment of existence is immoral. Knowledge is the novel's only morality.”

“The only reason for the existence of a novel is that it does attempt to represent life.”

“Writing a novel is actually searching for victims. As I write I keep looking for casualties. The stories uncover the casualties.”

“She liked Victorian novels. They were the only kind of novel you could read while eating an apple.”

“The novel is the one bright book of life. Books are not life. They are only tremulations on the ether. But the novel as a tremulation can make the whole man alive tremble.”

“All great novels, all true novels, are bisexual.”

“Most first novels are disguised autobiographies. This autobiography is a disguised novel.”

“Life resembles a novel more often than novels resemble life.”

“A short story is a love affair, a novel is a marriage. A short story is a photograph; a novel is a film.”

“I've no objection to the term 'graphic novel,' as long as what it is talking about is actually some sort of graphic work that could conceivably be described as a novel. My main objection to the term is that usually it means a collection of six issues of Spider-Man, or something that does not have the structure or any of the qualities of a novel, but is perhaps roughly the same size.”