I want to write such things as compel the admiring acclamation of the world at large, such things as are written but once in years, things subtle but distinctly different from the books written every day.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I was reading a lot of books I admired, and thought that I would like to write something like that someday.
Writing Part of the Scenery has been a very different experience. I have been reminded of people and events, real and imaginary which have been part of my life. This book is a celebration of the land which means so much to me.
Great writing can be done in biography, history, art.
A novel is a work of poetry. In order to write it, one must have tranquility of spirit and of impression.
I have been aspiring to write some sort of literature for a long time.
Write as precisely and as lucidly and as richly as you can about what you find truly mysterious and irreducible about human experience, and not obscurely about what will prove to be received opinion or cliche once the reader figures out your stylistic conceit. There's all the difference in the world between mystery and mystification.
Books allow you to see the world through the eyes of others.
I've been a traveller, but I don't travel so much now. I'm trying to do it vicariously through my writing. I'm trying to write books that will draw readers away from their lives but send them back in a more awakened way.
I want prose fiction to be recognized as that, and I'm not interested in writing as it becomes more personal.
Listen, I wrote 10 unsuccessful books before I broke through, so I'm looking all the time to keep my books fascinating. I want to write what people want to read, not push any message.