I think myself as a fabulist, not a critic. I realize that every writer is necessarily a critic - that is, each sentence is a skeleton accompanied by enormous activity of rejection; and each selection is governed by general principles concerning truth, force, beauty, and so on. But, as I have just suggested, I believe that the practice of writing consists in more and more relegating all that schematic operation to the subconscious. The critic that is in every fabulist is like the iceberg - nine-tenths of him is underwater.
More from Thornton Wilder
The future author is one who discovers that language, the exploration and manipulation of the resources of language, will serve him in winning through to his w…
Permalink to quote #25 The comic spirit is given to us in order that we may analyze, weigh, and clarify things in us which nettle us, or which we are outgrowing, or trying to reshape.
Permalink to quote #27 Ninety-nine per cent of the people in the world are fools and the rest of us are in great danger of contagion.
Permalink to quote #24