“You must therefore write as simply as you can—with the extreme of the simplicity that is granted to you, and you must write of subjects that spring at your throat.”

Writing should combine clarity with subjects that demand the writer’s attention · The English Novel

• Emotion
• Skill
• Writing

“We in turn, if we wished to produce on you an effect of life, must not narrate but render impressions.”

The writer should recreate the felt experience of life rather than merely recount events · Joseph Conrad: A Personal Remembrance

• Art
• Life
• Writing

“It is bitter bad for the English novel because—as is the case with all human enterprises—the art of the novel is so difficult a thing that unless a man’s whole energies are given to it he had much better otherwise occupy himself.”

Ford insists that serious writing demands sustained commitment to craft · The English Novel

• Skill
• Work
• Writing