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Top 30 David Shields Quotes (2025 Update)

David Shields Quote: “The novel is dead. Long live the antinovel, built from scraps.”

1. “The novel is dead. Long live the antinovel, built from scraps.”

— David Shields

David Shields Quote: “In my own little way, I feel like I’m part of a group of writers who care deeply about pushing the essay forward.”

2. “In my own little way, I feel like I’m part of a group of writers who care deeply about pushing the essay forward.”

— David Shields

David Shields Quote: “Candor is key – being willing to say what no one else is willing to say.”

3. “Candor is key – being willing to say what no one else is willing to say.”

— David Shields

David Shields Quote: “I don’t know what’s the matter with me, why I’m so adept at distance, why I feel so remote from things, why life feels like a rumor.”

4. “I don’t know what’s the matter with me, why I’m so adept at distance, why I feel so remote from things, why life feels like a rumor.”

— David Shields

David Shields Quote: “A book should either allow us to escape existence or teach us how to endure it.”

5. “A book should either allow us to escape existence or teach us how to endure it.”

— David Shields

David Shields Quote: “Anything processed by memory is fiction.”

6. “Anything processed by memory is fiction.”

— David Shields

David Shields Quote: “Everything I write, I believe instinctively, is to some extent collage. Meaning, ultimately, is a matter of adjacent data.”

7. “Everything I write, I believe instinctively, is to some extent collage. Meaning, ultimately, is a matter of adjacent data.”

— David Shields

David Shields Quote: “The center of the artistic process – for me – is the attempt to transform a particular feeling, insight, sorrow into a metaphor and then make that metaphor ramify so it holds everything, everything in the world.”

8. “The center of the artistic process – for me – is the attempt to transform a particular feeling, insight, sorrow into a metaphor and then make that metaphor ramify so it holds everything, everything in the world.”

— David Shields

David Shields Quote: “Story seems to say that everything happens for a reason and I want to say, No, it doesn’t.”

9. “Story seems to say that everything happens for a reason and I want to say, No, it doesn’t.”

— David Shields

David Shields Quote: “I’m interested in knowing the secrets that connect human beings. At the very deepest level, all our secrets are the same.”

10. “I’m interested in knowing the secrets that connect human beings. At the very deepest level, all our secrets are the same.”

— David Shields

David Shields Quote: “If I’m reading a book and it seems truly interesting, I tend to start reading back to front in order not to be too deeply under the sway of progress.”

11. “If I’m reading a book and it seems truly interesting, I tend to start reading back to front in order not to be too deeply under the sway of progress.”

— David Shields

David Shields Quote: “When will you stop laughing at misery? I’m so sick and tired of your pseudo-strength. All I want you to do is laugh at what is funny and cry at what isn’t, but you won’t do that, will you?”

12. “When will you stop laughing at misery? I’m so sick and tired of your pseudo-strength. All I want you to do is laugh at what is funny and cry at what isn’t, but you won’t do that, will you?”

— David Shields

David Shields Quote: “My medium is prose, not the novel.”

13. “My medium is prose, not the novel.”

— David Shields

David Shields Quote: “I take literature as a really serious human activity. It’s not just a playful thing. It can be hilarious and wonderful and performative, but I think it’s really serious.”

14. “I take literature as a really serious human activity. It’s not just a playful thing. It can be hilarious and wonderful and performative, but I think it’s really serious.”

— David Shields

David Shields Quote: “The absence of plot leaves the reader room to think about other things.”

15. “The absence of plot leaves the reader room to think about other things.”

— David Shields

David Shields Quote: “Every page is a bent version of reality – too unsophisticated to be art but too self-conscious to be mere reportage.”

16. “Every page is a bent version of reality – too unsophisticated to be art but too self-conscious to be mere reportage.”

— David Shields

David Shields Quote: “What if America isn’t really the sort of place where a street urchin can charm his way to the top through diligence and talent? What if instead it’s the sort of place where heartwarming stories about abused children who triumphed through adversity are made up and marketed?”

17. “What if America isn’t really the sort of place where a street urchin can charm his way to the top through diligence and talent? What if instead it’s the sort of place where heartwarming stories about abused children who triumphed through adversity are made up and marketed?”

— David Shields

David Shields Quote: “I’m not interested in myself per se. I’m interested in myself as theme carrier, as host.”

18. “I’m not interested in myself per se. I’m interested in myself as theme carrier, as host.”

— David Shields

David Shields Quote: “A memoir is a work of sustained narrative prose controlled by an idea of the self under obligation to lift from the raw material of life a tale that will shape experience, transform the event, deliver wisdom.”

19. “A memoir is a work of sustained narrative prose controlled by an idea of the self under obligation to lift from the raw material of life a tale that will shape experience, transform the event, deliver wisdom.”

— David Shields

David Shields Quote: “Every work, no matter how short or antilinear, needs momentum;.”

20. “Every work, no matter how short or antilinear, needs momentum;.”

— David Shields

David Shields Quote: “You want to put in a little bit of David – the safe part of David – the David that you wouldn’t be afraid to show anybody, but there is a David that you don’t want to be in the film, and that’s what you should try to put in, if you don’t dare face yourself other ways. Confess things to the camera. Say the things you’re most ashamed of, things you don’t want to remember, things you don’t want anybody to know. Maybe that way there’ll be some truth.”

21. “You want to put in a little bit of David – the safe part of David – the David that you wouldn’t be afraid to show anybody, but there is a David that you don’t want to be in the film, and that’s what you should try to put in, if you don’t dare face yourself other ways. Confess things to the camera. Say the things you’re most ashamed of, things you don’t want to remember, things you don’t want anybody to know. Maybe that way there’ll be some truth.”

— David Shields

David Shields Quote: “Human memory, driven by emotional self-interest, goes to extraordinary lengths to provide evidence to back up whatever understanding of the world we have our hearts set on – however removed that may be from reality.”

22. “Human memory, driven by emotional self-interest, goes to extraordinary lengths to provide evidence to back up whatever understanding of the world we have our hearts set on – however removed that may be from reality.”

— David Shields

David Shields Quote: “I wanted literature to assuage human loneliness, but nothing can assuage human loneliness. Literature doesn’t lie about this – which is wha makes it essential.”

23. “I wanted literature to assuage human loneliness, but nothing can assuage human loneliness. Literature doesn’t lie about this – which is wha makes it essential.”

— David Shields

David Shields Quote: “Resolution and conclusion are inherent in a plot-driven narrative.”

24. “Resolution and conclusion are inherent in a plot-driven narrative.”

— David Shields

David Shields Quote: “I’m wonderfully self-lacerating, probably to my character’s detriment. I’m terribly open to critique.”

25. “I’m wonderfully self-lacerating, probably to my character’s detriment. I’m terribly open to critique.”

— David Shields

David Shields Quote: “To me, the moment you’re talking about nonfiction you’re talking about reality.”

26. “To me, the moment you’re talking about nonfiction you’re talking about reality.”

— David Shields

David Shields Quote: “You’re one of 6.5 billion people now on the planet, and 99.9 percent of your genes are the same as everyone else’s.”

27. “You’re one of 6.5 billion people now on the planet, and 99.9 percent of your genes are the same as everyone else’s.”

— David Shields

David Shields Quote: “Momentum, in literary mosaic, derives not from narrative but from the subtle, progressive buildup of thematic resonances.”

28. “Momentum, in literary mosaic, derives not from narrative but from the subtle, progressive buildup of thematic resonances.”

— David Shields

David Shields Quote: “Let us hope the time will come when language is most efficiently used where it is being most efficiently misused.”

29. “Let us hope the time will come when language is most efficiently used where it is being most efficiently misused.”

— David Shields

David Shields Quote: “With relatively few exceptions, the novel sacrifices too much, for me, on the altar of plot.”

30. “With relatively few exceptions, the novel sacrifices too much, for me, on the altar of plot.”

— David Shields

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