"I will admit that an artist may be great and limited; by one word he may light up an abyss of soul; but there must be this one magical and unique word. Shakespeare gives us the word, Balzac, sometimes, after pages of vain striving, gives us the word, Tourgueneff gives it with miraculous certainty; but Henry James, no; a hundred times he flutters about it; his whole book is one long flutter near to the one magical and unique word, but the word is not spoken; and for want of the word his characters are never resolved out of the haze of nebulae. You are on a bowing acquaintance with them; they pass you in the street, they stop and speak to you, you know how they are dressed, you watch the colour of their eyes."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Playwrights from IrelandNovelists from IrelandArt criticsPoets from IrelandShort story writers from Ireland
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Ch. 12.
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_Moore_(novelist)
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
George Moore (novelist)
George Augustus Moore (24 February 1852 – 21 January 1933) was an Irish novelist, short story writer, poet, art critic, memoirist and dramatist.
37 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by George Moore (novelist) →
Related Quotes
"Ugliness is trivial, the monstrous is terrible."
"The lot of critics is to be remembered by what they failed to understand."
"Acting is therefore the lowest of the arts, if it is an art at all."
"The public will accept a masterpiece, but it will not accept an attempt to write a masterpiece."
"I have always noticed that when a fellow wants to finish a play, the only way to do it is to go away to the country a…"
"He must put his shoulder to the wheel and get it right; one more push, that was all that was wanted."
"Faith goes out of the window when beauty comes in at the door."
"The mind petrifies if a circle be drawn around it, and it can hardly be denied that dogma draws a circle round the mind."
"A man travels the world over in search of what he needs and returns home to find it."
"Never could I interest myself in a book if it were not the exact diet my mind required at the time, or in the very im…"