If There is a Reason for a Novelist

If there is a reason for the existence for the novelist on earth it is this: to show the element which holds out against God in the highest and noblest characters–the innermost evils and dissimulations; and also to light up the secret source of sanctity in creatures who seem to us to have failed.

“God and Mammon.” Francois Mauriac. Sheed & Ward Inc. 1936. p 79.

Dissimulation means to conceal one’s thoughts or emotions; pretense.