Every language has a grammar, a set of rules that govern usage and meaning, and literary language is no different. It’s all more or less arbitrary of course, just like language itself.

— Thomas C. Foster

Every novel is brand-new. It’s never been written before in the history of the world. At the same time, it’s merely the latest in a long line of narratives—not just novels, but narratives generally—since humans began telling stories to themselves and each other.

— Thomas C. Foster

His argument runs like this: there is no goodness without free will. Without the ability to freely choose-or reject-the good, an individual possesses no control over his own soul, and without that control, there is no possibility of attaining grace. In the language of Christianity, a deliver cannot be saved unless the choice to follow Christ is freely made, unless the option not to follow him genuinely exists. Compelled belief is no belief at all.

— Thomas C. Foster

History is story, too. You don't encounter her directly; you've only heard of her through narrative of one sort or another.

— Thomas C. Foster

If a story is no good, being based on Hamlet won't save it.

— Thomas C. Foster

In order to remain undead, I must steal the life force of someone whose fate matters less to me than my own.' I've always supposed that Wall Street traders utter essentially the same sentence.

— Thomas C. Foster

Literary works are not democracies. We hold this truth to be self-evident, that all men and women are created equal. We may, but the country of Novels, Etc., doesn't. In that faraway place, no character is created equal. One or two of them get all the breaks; the rest exist to get them to the finish line.

— Thomas C. Foster

Now, Joyce being Joyce, he has about five different purposes, one not being enough for genius.

— Thomas C. Foster

Please note, I am not suggesting that illicit drugs are required to break down social barriers.

— Thomas C. Foster

Rain falls on the just and the unjust alike.

— Thomas C. Foster