House of the Long Shadows (1983)

"Falling in love is very realistic, people do it all the time."

"Not in my novels they don't, I don't believe in it."

"Seems to be the current trend among you young writers."

"Well, it's a cynical age we live in."

"Don't I know it! When I think of Tolstoy, Victor Hugo, Charles Dickens - where are they all now, I ask myself?"

"I think they're dead, Sam."