Human society is the embodiment of changeless laws which the whimsicalities and circumstances of men and women involve and overwrap. The realm of literature is the realm of these accidental manners and humours—a spacious realm; and the true literary artist concerns himself mainly with them.
ATTRIBUTION:
James Joyce (1882–1941), Irish author. From a paper read before the Literary and Historical Society of University College, Dublin, in 1900. “Drama and Life,” The Critical Writings, eds. Richard Ellmann and Ellsworth Mason, Viking (1959).
