The Write Advice 160: ANTHONY BURGESS

I had turned myself into a novelist, and novelists are perhaps the last people in the world to be entrusted with opinions.  The nature of a novel is that it has no opinions, only the dialectic of contrary views, some of which, all of which, may be untenable and even silly.  A novelist should not be too intelligent either, although, like Aldous Huxley, he may be permitted to be an intellectual.  It is in order for him to make aesthetic judgements, though these will tend to partiality and the reflection of his own practice.  But it is dangerous to turn him into a little seer or twopenny philosopher, though this is probably bound to happen when professional philosophers and churchmen have so little useful to say about moral or social problems.
      The practice of fiction can be dangerous: it puts ideas into the head of the world.

You've Had Your Time (1990)


 

Use the link below to visit the website of THE INTERNATIONAL ANTHONY BURGESS FOUNDATION, an English-based organisation which 'encourages and supports public and scholarly interest in all aspects of the life and work of Anthony Burgess.'  It also operates a museum/performance space in his home town of Manchester.

 

http://www.anthonyburgess.org/

 

 

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