Quote by: Clark Ashton Smith

To me, the best, if not the only function of imaginative writing, is to lead the human imagination outward, to take it into the vast external cosmos, and away from all that introversion and introspection, that morbidly exaggerated prying into one's own vitals—and the vitals of others—which Robinson Jeffers has so aptly symbolized as "incest." What we need is less "human interest," in the narrow sense of the term—not more. Physiological—and even psychological analysis—can be largely left to the writers of scientific monographs on such themes. Fiction, as I see it, is not the place for that sort of grubbing.


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Author Bio


  • NameClark Ashton Smith
  • DescriptionAmerican author
  • BornJanuary 13, 1893
  • DiedAugust 14, 1961
  • CountryUnited States Of America
  • ProfessionPoet; Sculptor; Painter; Novelist; Writer