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Quotation by Elizabeth Bowen

A novel which survives, which withstands and outlives time, does do something more than merely survive. It does not stand still. It accumulates round itself the understanding of all these persons who bring to it something of their own. It acquires associations, it becomes a form of experience in itself, so that two people who meet can often make friends, find an approach to each other, because of this one great common experience they have had ...
Elizabeth Bowen (1899–1973), British novelist, story writer, essayist, and memoirist; born in Ireland. Seven Winters, part 2, sect. 4, ch. 2 (1962).

From "Truth and Fiction," a 1956 talk which Bowen gave on a British Broadcasting Company (BBC) Home Service radio program.
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