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When people read his books they have an uncontrollable desire to hang the author in the town square. I can’t think of a higher honor for a writer.

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One night I dreamed of an angel: I walked into a huge, empty bar and saw him sitting in a corner with his elbows on the table and a cup of milky coffe...more

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His novel or book of poems, decent, adequate, arises not from an exercise of style or will, as the poor unfortunate believes, but as the result of an ...more

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Another time, talking about his books, the baroness confessed that she had never bothered to read any of them, because she hardly ever read 'difficult...more

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Ivanov had been a party member since 1902. Back then he had tried to write stories in the manner of Tolstoy, Chekhov, Gorky, or rather he had tried to...more

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Of course, they were other things too. Sometimes they were even everything all together, but not fame, which was rooted in delusion and lies, if not a...more

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He chose The Metamorphosis over The Trial, he chose Bartleby over Moby-Dick, he chose A Simple Heart over Bouvard and Pecuchet, and A Christmas Carol ...more

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Ivanov's fear was of a literary nature. That is, it was the fear that afflicts most citizens who, one fine (or dark) day, choose to make the practice ...more

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Probably all of us, writers and readers alike, set out into exile, or at least into a certain kind of exile, when we leave childhood behind...The immi...more

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I went on writing reviews for the newspaper, and critical articles crying out for a different approach to culture, as even the most inattentive reader...more

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Write in the morning, revise in the afternoon, read at night, and spend the rest of your time exercising your diplomacy, stealth, and charm.

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A person could be immensely happy reading only him or the writers he loved. But that would be too easy.

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You can woo a girl with a poem, but you can't hold onto her with a poem. Not even with a poetry movement.

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I didn't hit her, man, what happened was that Maria was obsessed with the Marquis de Sade and wanted to try the spanking thing," said Luscious Skin. "...more