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Reading usually precedes writing. And the impulse to write is almost always fired by reading. Reading, the love of reading, is what makes you dream of...more

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A writer, I think, is someone who pays attention to the w

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Love words, agonize over sentences. And pay attention to the world.

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Love words, agonize over sentences. And pay

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A writer, I think, is someone who pays attention to the world.", Frankfurt Book Fair, October 12, 2003]

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My urge to write is an urge not to self-expressionism but to self-transcendence. My work is both bigger and smaller than I am.

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If I thought that what I'm doing when I write is expressing myself, I'd junk the typewriter. Writing is a much more complicated activity that that.

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My idea of a writer: someone interested in everything.

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Writing is a mysterious activity.

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For the modern consciousness, the artist (replacing the saint) is the exemplary sufferer. And among artists, the writer, the man of words, is the pers...more