# Quote — John Gardner, On Moral Fiction

> Technically our novelists (for instance) are shrewd enough, and publishers and reviewers seem, as never before, eager to be of use. Nevertheless, wherever we look it's the same: commercial slickness, misplaced cleverness, posturing, wild floundering -- dullness. Though not widely advertised, this is general knowledge. When one talks with editors of serious fiction, they all sound the same: they speak of their pleasure and satisfaction in their work, but more often than not the editor cannot think, under the moment's pressure, of a single contemporary writer he really enjoys reading. Some deny, even publicly, that any first-rate American novelists now exist. The ordinary reader has been saying that for years...

- Author: [John Gardner](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-gardner.md)
- Book: [On Moral Fiction](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-gardner/on-moral-fiction.md)
- Page: 56
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Gardner_(American_writer)#On_Moral_Fiction_(1977)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-gardner/on-moral-fiction/technically-our-novelists

## More from this book

> True art is by its nature moral. We recognize true art by its careful, thoroughly honest search for and analysis of values.

p. 19 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-gardner/on-moral-fiction/true-art-is-by-its.md)