It's Harder to Write a Good Novel Than a Good Poem

I think its harder to write a good novel than a good poem. The poem, or the kind of poem we write nowadays, is a single emotional spear-point, a concentrated effect that is achieved by leaving everything out but the emotion itself. But the novel can’t do this. In the novel, the emotion has to be attached to a human being, and the human has to be attached to a particular time and a particular place, and has to do with other human beings and be involved with them…. Whereas the poet relies on the intensity with which he can say it, the novelist relies on the persuasiveness with which he can show it.

PHILIP LARKIN