#out

All the details of the life and the quirks and the friendships can be laid out for us, but the mystery of the writing will remain. No amount of documentation, however fascinating, can take us there. ↗

— V. S. Naipaul

#details #documentation #fascinating #friendships #however

But everything of value about me is in my books. ↗

— V. S. Naipaul

#books #everything #me #value

Each book, intuitively sensed and, in the case of fiction, intuitively worked out, stands on what has gone before, and grows out of it. I feel that at any stage of my literary career it could have been said that the last book contained all the others. ↗

— V. S. Naipaul

#been #before #book #career #case

I really wasn't equipped to be a writer when I left Oxford. But then I set out to learn. I've always had the highest regard for the craft. I've always felt it was work. ↗

— V. S. Naipaul

#craft #equipped #felt #had #highest

It's very attractive to people to be a victim. Instead of having to think out the whole situation, about history and your group and what you are doing... if you begin from the point of view of being a victim, you've got it half-made. I mean intellectually. ↗

— V. S. Naipaul

#attractive #begin #being #doing #got

The reason is that they define how I have gone about my business. I have trusted to intuition. I did it at the beginning. I do it even now. I have no idea how things might turn out, where in my writing I might go next. ↗

— V. S. Naipaul

#beginning #business #define #did #even

The world outside existed in a kind of darkness; and we inquired about nothing. ↗

— V. S. Naipaul

#darkness #existed #kind #nothing #outside

There are certain things that are too painful for people to even write about sometimes, and there are certain things that are too hard to read about again. ↗

— V. S. Naipaul

#again #certain #certain things #even #hard

Poetry isn't a profession, it's a way of life. It's an empty basket; you put your life into it and make something out of that. ↗

— Mary Oliver

#empty #into #life #make #out

It's only at this age that I can say the word 'art' without flinching. ↗

— Mira Nair

#art #flinching #i #i can #only