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And that's why books are never going to die. It's impossible. It's the only time we really go into the mind of a stranger, and we find our common huma...more

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Surely it is an odd way to spend your life - sitting alone in a room with a pen in your hand, hour after hour, day after day, year after year, struggl...more

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I started out in life as a poet; I was only writing poetry all through my 20s. It wasn't until I was about 30 that I got serious about writing prose. ...more

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I've been trying to fit everything in, trying to get to the end before it's too late, but I see now how badly I've deceived myself. Words do not allow...more

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The pen will never be able to move fast enough to write down every word discovered in the space of memory. Some things have been lost forever, other t...more

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To care about words, to have a stake in what is written, to believe in the power of books - this overwhelms the rest, and beside it one's life becomes...more