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4391 Novelist Quotes

In the United States there's a Puritan ethic and a mythology of success. He who is successful is good. In Latin countries, in Catholic countries, a successful person is a sinner.

Catholic Countries Ethic Good
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I developed a passion for the Middle Ages the same way some people develop a passion for coconuts.

Ages Develop Developed Middle
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The great pleasure of a dog is that you may make a fool of yourself with him and not only will he not scold you, but he will make a fool of himself too.

Dog Fool Great He
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Life is like playing a violin solo in public and learning the instrument as one goes on.
Goes Instrument Learning Life
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Fear is static that prevents me from hearing myself.

Fear Hearing Me Myself
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God cannot alter the past, though historians can.

Alter Cannot God Historians
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Let us be grateful to the mirror for revealing to us our appearance only.

Appearance Grateful Mirror Only
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A hen is only an egg's way of making another egg.

Another Egg Hen Making
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I do not mind lying, but I hate inaccuracy.

Hate Lying Mind
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Man is the only animal that can remain on friendly terms with the victims he intends to eat until he eats them.

Animal Eat Friendly He
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When a man is in doubt about this or that in his writing, it will often guide him if he asks himself how it will tell a hundred years hence.

About Ask Doubt Guide
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The man who lets himself be bored is even more contemptible than the bore.

Bore Bored Contemptible Even
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To give pain is the tyranny; to make happy, the true empire of beauty.

Beauty Empire Give Happy
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Any fool can tell the truth, but it requires a man of some sense to know how to lie well.

Any Fool How Know
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As an adolescent I wrote comic books, because I read lots of them, and fantasy novels set in Malaysia and Central Africa.

Adolescent Africa Because Books
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We have a limit, a very discouraging, humiliating limit: death.

Death Discouraging Humiliating Limit
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We like lists because we don't want to die.
Because Die Like Lists
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As a scholar I am interested in the philosophy of language, semiotics, call it what you want, and one of the main features of the human language is the possibility of lying.

Am Call Features Human
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From lies to forgeries the step is not so long, and I have written technical essays on the logic of forgeries and on the influence of forgeries on history.

Essays History Influence Lies
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But Italy is not an intellectual country. On the subway in Tokyo everybody reads. In Italy, they don't. Don't evaluate Italy from the fact that it produced Raphael and Michelangelo.

Country Evaluate Everybody Fact
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People are tired of simple things. They want to be challenged.
Challenged People Simple Simple Things
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Every time that I write a novel I am convinced for at least two years that it is the last one, because a novel is like a child. It takes two years after its birth. You have to take care of it. It starts walking, and then speaking.

After Am Because Birth
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I don't see the point of having 80 million people online if all they are doing in the end is talking to ghosts in the suburbs.

Doing End Ghosts Having
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After years of practice, I can walk into a bookstore and understand its layout in a few seconds. I can glance at the spine of a book and make a good guess at its content from a number of signs.

After Book Bookstore Content
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It comes down to a question of attention: it's difficult to use the Net distractedly, unlike the television or the radio.

Attention Difficult Down Net
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Perhaps I am not as wise as I like to think I am.

Am I Am Like Perhaps
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When I went from being an academic to being a member of the community of writers some of my former colleagues did look on me with a certain resentment.

Academic Being Certain Colleagues
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It is a myth of publishers that people want to read easy things.
Easy Myth People Publishers
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Every European goes on the streets and sees medieval churches. Not if you live in Indianapolis. The most exciting letters I received were from people in places like that.

Churches European Every Exciting
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There are more people than you think who want to have a challenging experience, in which they are obliged to reflect about the past.

About Challenging Experience More
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Young people do not watch television; they are on the Internet.

Internet People Television Watch
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I think a book should be judged 10 years later, after reading and re-reading it.
After Book I Think Judged
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I started to work in television for three or four years, in 1954. There was one channel of television, black and white. But it could be entertaining and educational. During the evening they showed important plays, opera or Shakespeare's tragedies.

Black Black And White Channel Could
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Because of lies, we can produce and invent a possible world.

Because Invent Lies Possible
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It is clear that when you write a story that takes place in the past, you try to show what really happened in those times. But you are always moved by the suspicion that you are also showing something about our contemporary world.

About Also Always Clear
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Our life is full of empty space.
Empty Empty Space Full Life
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Captain Cook discovered Australia looking for the Terra Incognita. Christopher Columbus thought he was finding India but discovered America. History is full of events that happened because of an imaginary tale.

America Australia Because Captain
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Today, political events are nullified unless they're on TV.

Events Political Today TV
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The Enlightenment, the Age of Reason, is seen as the beginning of modern depravity.

Age Beginning Enlightenment Modern
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The French, the Italians, the Germans, the Spanish and the English have spent centuries killing each other.

Centuries Each English French
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The United States needed a civil war to unite properly.

Civil Civil War Needed Properly
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All truth is not to be told at all times.
Times Truth
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Human life is as evanescent as the morning dew or a flash of lightning.

Dew Flash Human Life
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Many people who no longer go to church end up falling prey to superstition.

Church End Falling Go
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Neither irony or sarcasm is argument.

Argument Irony Neither Sarcasm
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Nobody shoots at Santa Claus.

Nobody Santa Shoots
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With all of its defects, the global market makes war less likely, even between the U.S.A. and China.

Between China Defects Even
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The oldest books are only just out to those who have not read them.

Books Just Oldest Only
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When someone has to intervene to defend the liberty of the press, that society is sick.

Defend Intervene Liberty Press
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All animals, except man, know that the principal business of life is to enjoy it.

Animals Business Enjoy Except
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