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A novel is what you dream in your night sleep. A novel is not waking thoughts although it is written and thought with waking thoughts. But really a novel goes as dreams go in sleeping at night and some dreams are like anything and some dreams are like something and some dreams change and some dreams are quiet and some dreams are not. And some dreams are just what any one would do only a little different always just a little different and that is what a novel is.

Gertrude Stein#115

CreativityDreamsFictionImagination

About this quote

What does it mean?
A novel operates like sleep dreams, shifting and varying rather than following strict waking logic.
In plain terms
Novels work like dreams, changing and varying instead of following strict logic.
What can you take from it?
Accept that novels follow dreamlike logic rather than rigid reality.

Where it applies

  • writing fiction
  • reading novels
  • analyzing stories

Putting it to work

  • embrace narrative shifts
  • expect variability
  • explore subconscious themes

Questions to consider

  • How does a novel feel like a dream?
  • What makes fiction different from reality?

Another view

Not all novels rely on dreamlike structures or ignore waking logic.

More from Gertrude Stein

  1. I don't envisage collectivism. There is no such animal, it is always individualism, sometimes the rest vote and sometimes they do not, and if they do they do a…

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  2. The contemporary thing in art and literature is the thing which doesn't make enough difference to the people of that generation so that they can accept it or r…

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  3. Clarity is of no importance because nobody listens and nobody knows what you mean no matter what you mean, nor how clearly you mean what you mean. But if you h…

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