"I have been discussing Dickens simply in terms of his ‘message’, and almost ignoring his literary qualities. But every writer, especially every novelist, has a ‘message’, whether he admits it or not, and the minutest details of his work are influenced by it. All art is propaganda. Neither Dickens himself nor the majority of Victorian novelists would have thought of denying this. On the other hand, not all propaganda is art. As I said earlier, Dickens is one of those writers who are felt to be worth stealing. He has been stolen by Marxists, by Catholics and, above all, by Conservatives. The question is, What is there to steal? Why does anyone care about Dickens? Why do I care about Dickens?"
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Imported from EN Wikiquote
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_Orwell
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Related Quotes
"The Party taught that the proles were natural inferiors who must be kept in subjection, like animals, by the applicat…"
"Everything will be dead inside you. Never again will you be capable of love, or friendship, or joy of living, or laug…"
"By 'patriotism' I mean devotion to a particular place and a particular way of life, which one believes to be the best…"
"In England, a century of strong government has developed what O. Henry called the stern and rugged fear of the police…"
"Spending the night out of doors has nothing attractive about it in London, especially for a poor, ragged, undernouris…"
"And once, in spite of the men who gripped him by each shoulder, he stepped slightly aside to avoid a puddle on the pa…"
"This means no more than vae victis - woe to the creed that is not backed by machine-guns!"
"To the well-fed it seems cowardly to complain of tight boots, because the well-fed live in a different world-a world …"
"What is needed is the right to print what one believes to be true, without having to fear bullying or blackmail from …"
"[T]here is something wrong with a regime that requires a pyramid of corpses every few years."