V. S. Pritchett
V. S. Pritchett
Sir Victor Sawdon Pritchett CH CBE, was a British writer and literary critic...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionWriter
Date of Birth16 December 1900
commitment america evil
Absolute Evil is not the kingdom of hell. The inhabitants of hell are ourselves, i.e., those who pay our painful, embarrassing, humanistic duties to society and who are compromised by our intellectually dubious commitment to virtue, which can be defined by the perpetual smear-word of French polemic: the bourgeois. (Bourgeois equals humanist.) This word has long been anathema in France where categories are part of the ruling notion of logique. The word cannot be readily matched in England or America.
eye mind cinema
Because of the influence of the cinema, most reports or stories of violence are so pictorial that they lack content or meaning. The camera brings them to our eyes, but does not settle them in our minds, nor in time.
art men enough
Like many popular best-sellers, he was a very sad and solemn man who took himself too seriously and his art not seriously enough.
losing thrive contact
Some writers thrive on the contact with the commerce of success; others are corrupted by it. Perhaps, like losing one's virginity,it is not as bad (or as good) as one feared it was going to be.
self creative emotion
One recalls how much the creative impulse of the best-sellers depends upon self-pity. It is an emotion of great dramatic potential.
order giving use
On one plane, the very great writers and the popular romancers of the lower order always meet. They use all of themselves, helplessly, unselectively. They are above the primness and good taste of declining to give themselves away.
memories lying people
All writers - all people - have their stores of private and family legends which lie like a collection of half-forgotten, often violent toys on the floor of memory.
art credit
It's all in the art. You get no credit for living.
guilt sin feels
How extraordinary it is that one feels most guilt about the sins one is unable to commit.
spirit assertive cautious
The Canadian spirit is cautious, observant and critical where the American is assertive.
thinking habit curious
Life — how curious is that habit that makes us think it is not here, but elsewhere.
fashion criticism stories
Criticism changes with the fashion of the time. A story is always a story.
writing suicidal home
The businessman who is a novelist is able to drop in on literature and feel no suicidal loss of esteem if the lady is not at home, and he can spend his life preparing without fuss for the awful interview.
action tranquility used
We are used to the actions of human beings, not to their stillness.