Melville brought to the task a sound knowledge of actual whaling, much curious learning in the literature of the subject, and, above all, an imagination which worked with great power upon the facts of his own experience. – Carl Clinton Van Doren

Novelists are not equipped to make a movie, in my opinion. They make their own movie when they write: theyre casting, theyre dressing the scene, theyre working out where the energy of the scene is coming from and theyre also relying tremendously on the creative imagination of the reader. – John le Carre