Quotes from book
The Novel of the Future

The Novel of the Future is a non-fiction book by Anaïs Nin, published in 1968. In it she explores the nature of the creative process in relation to novel-writing, including concepts such as defamiliarization.

“The necessity for fiction was probably born of the problem of taboo on certain revelations. It was not only a need of the imagination but an answer to the limitations placed on portrayal of others.”

Anaïs Nin book The Novel of the Future

The Novel of the Future (1969)

“Neurosis was caused by our attempt to separate physical and metaphysical levels, to set them up in opposition to each other, thus engaging in an internecine war. If it is true that we do live on several levels simultaneously- drama and action, past and present, personal and collective- we are given ways to unify them: one by religion, the other by art. Separating such levels is only necessary when they conflict, and separation is a result of conflict. Seeing how these levels can work together in harmony is the task of our contemporary writers.”

Anaïs Nin book The Novel of the Future

The Novel of the Future (1969)

“The dream has to be translated into reality.”

Anaïs Nin book The Novel of the Future

The Novel of the Future (1969)

“The dream, scrutinized by scientists in various experiments, has been found to be an absolute necessity to man.”

Anaïs Nin book The Novel of the Future

The Novel of the Future (1969)

“It was a misunderstanding to stress the dream like quality of the novels. What I meant to stress was the interrelation between dream and life, between dream and action.”

Anaïs Nin book The Novel of the Future

The Novel of the Future (1969)

“The unconscious can become destructive if it is disregarded and thwarted.”

Anaïs Nin book The Novel of the Future

The Novel of the Future (1969)

“Passivity, like the passivity of India induced by religion, is destructive both to human life and to art.”

Anaïs Nin book The Novel of the Future

The Novel of the Future (1969)

“For the neurotic, the merging of the subconscious and the conscious may be risky, just as it is for the users of drugs. But for the writer who is aware of the way in which this connection exists in reality and nourishes creativity, the sooner he can achieve a synthesis among intellect, emotion, and instinct, the sooner his work will be integrated.”

Anaïs Nin book The Novel of the Future

The Novel of the Future (1969)

“Most fiction writers uses dreams decoratively without relating them to daily life, but the contemporary writer is becoming more expert at detecting the influence of one upon the other.”

Anaïs Nin book The Novel of the Future

The Novel of the Future (1969)

“We are beginning to see the influence of dream upon reality and reality upon dream.”

Anaïs Nin book The Novel of the Future

The Novel of the Future (1969)

“The creative personality never remains fixed on the first world it discovers. It never resigns itself to anything.”

Anaïs Nin book The Novel of the Future

The Novel of the Future (1969)

“I think that natural truths will cease to be spat at us like insults, that aesthetics will once more be linked with ethics, and that people will become aware that in casting out aesthetics that they also cast out a respect for human life, a respect for creation, a respect for spiritual values. Aesthetics was an expression of man's need to be in love with his world. The cult of ugliness is a regression. It destroys our appetite, our love for our world.”

Anaïs Nin book The Novel of the Future

The Novel of the Future (1969)

“By shutting out the outside world, drugs place one not only in confrontation with the dreaming self, but also ones nightmares.”

Anaïs Nin book The Novel of the Future

The Novel of the Future (1969)

“The hallucinatory drugs only reveal the world of images we contain but do not teach us interpretation, illumination, or enlightenment.”

Anaïs Nin book The Novel of the Future

The Novel of the Future (1969)

“Because so many of our writers were born in ugly environments, in monstrous poverty and humilitation, they continue to assert that this is the natural environment, reality, and that beauty is artifice. Why should the natural state be ugliness? Natural to whom? We may be born in ugliness, but the natural consequences should be a thirst for its opposite. To mistake ugliness for reality is one of the frauds of the realistic school. A hunger for the unknown, and an aspiration towards beauty were inseparable from civilization. In America the word art was distorted to mean artificial.
We are born with the power to alter what we are given at birth.
When the Japanese paint flowers or the sea on a kimono they mean to establish a link with nature. But they select only what is beautiful in nature to maintain their love of life.
The creative personality never remains fixed on the first world it discovers. It never resigns itself to anything. That is the deepest meaning of rebellion, not the wearing of different clothes, haircuts, or the adopting of other cultures.”

Anaïs Nin book The Novel of the Future

The Novel of the Future (1969)

Similar authors

Anaïs Nin photo

Anaïs Nin278

writer of novels, short stories, and erotica 1903–1977

Italo Calvino photo

Italo Calvino44

Italian journalist and writer of short stories and novels None

W. Somerset Maugham photo

W. Somerset Maugham158

British playwright, novelist, short story writer None

Luigi Pirandello photo

Luigi Pirandello7

Italian dramatist, novelist, short story writer, and poet, … None

Doris Lessing photo

Doris Lessing94

British novelist, poet, playwright, librettist, biographer … None

Rudyard Kipling photo

Rudyard Kipling200

English short-story writer, poet, and novelist None

Sinclair Lewis photo

Sinclair Lewis136

American novelist, short-story writer, and playwright None

William Faulkner photo

William Faulkner214

American writer None

Clarice Lispector photo

Clarice Lispector34

Brazilian writer None

F. Scott Fitzgerald photo

F. Scott Fitzgerald411

American novelist and screenwriter None

Similar authors

Anaïs Nin photo

Anaïs Nin278

writer of novels, short stories, and erotica 1903–1977

Italo Calvino photo

Italo Calvino44

Italian journalist and writer of short stories and novels None

W. Somerset Maugham photo

W. Somerset Maugham158

British playwright, novelist, short story writer None

Luigi Pirandello photo

Luigi Pirandello7

Italian dramatist, novelist, short story writer, and poet, … None

Doris Lessing photo

Doris Lessing94

British novelist, poet, playwright, librettist, biographer … None