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An author in his book must be like God in the universe, present everywhere and visible nowhere.

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Books aren’t made in the way that babies are: they are made like pyramids, There’s some long-pondered plan, and then great blocks of stone are placed ...more

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The artist must manage to make posterity believe that he never existed.

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The public wants work which flatters its illusions.

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What a man Balzac would have been if he had known how to write.

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My foregrounds are imaginary, my backgrounds real.

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You don't know what it is to stay a whole day with your head in your hands trying to squeeze your unfortunate brain so as to find a word.

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Writing is a dog’s life, but the only one worth living.

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When you reduce a woman to writing, she makes you think of a thousand other women

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I am irritated by my own writing. I am like a violinist whose ear is true, but whose fingers refuse to reproduce precisely the sound he hears within.

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In my view, the novelist has no right to express his opinions on the things of this world. In creating, he must imitate God: do his job and then shut ...more

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You don’t make art out of good intentions.

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I grew up in a hospital and as a child I played in the dissecting room

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Better to work for yourself alone. You do as you like and follow your own ideas, you admire yourself and please yourself: isn’t that the main thing? A...more

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One day, I shall explode like an artillery shell and all my bits will be found on the writing table.