The naturalistic literature of this country has reached such a state that no family of characters is considered true to life which... does not include at least two hypochondriacs, one sadist, and one old man who spills food down the front of his vest.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
What is a novel? I say: an invented story. At the same time a story which, though invented has the power to ring true. True to wha...t? True to life as the reader knows life to be or, it may be, feels life to be. And I mean the adult, the grown-up reader. Such a reader has outgrown fairy tales, and we do not want the fantastic and the impossible. So I say to you that a novel must stand up to the adult tests of reality.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
It's precisely the disappointing stories, which have no proper ending and therefore no proper meaning, that sound true to life.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The genuine artist is never "true to life." He sees what is real, but not as we are normally aware of it. We do not go storming th...rough life like actors in a play. Art is never real life.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
There is a history in all men's lives, Figuring the natures of the times deceased,... The which observed, a man may prophesy, With a near aim, of the main chance of things As yet not come to life.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The question is not ... if art is enough to fulfill my life, but if I am true to the path I have set for myself, if I am the best ...I can be in the things I do. Am I living up to the reasons I became a singer in the first place?LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
... religion (ought to be if it isn't) a great deal more than mere gratification of the instinct for worship linked with the strai...ght-teaching of irreproachable credos. Religion must be life made true; and life is action, growth, development--begun now and ending never.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Who claims that the heathen's view of the world is incorrect? Life gives you nothing! It is ruled by false gods! Nothing remains t...rue to you but your own self; provided you remain true to it.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »