"Most talk of 'artistic detachment' is disingenuous. No writer can depict the whole world - even if, like Balzac, he makes a credible attempt. All he can do is offer 'typical samples,' like a grocer allowing you to taste a piece of cheese. But as he holds out the cheese to you on the end of his knife, he is clearly implying that this sample tastes exactly the same as the rest of the cheese on the counter. The same goes for the novelist; as he hands you his 'slice of life', there is a tacit understanding that, as far as he knows, this tastes very much like any other slice he could offer you."

Colin Wilson, The Craft of the Novel (Ashgrove Press, 1990), pp. 57.