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4391 Novelist Quotes

I don't really understand that process called reincarnation but if there is such a thing I'd like to come back as my daughter's dog.

Back Come Daughter Dog
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We're in a world where there's famine and hunger and people are dodging bullets and having their nails pulled out in dungeons so it's very hard for me to place any high value on the work that I do to write a song. Yeah, I work hard but compared to what?

Any Bullets Compared Dungeons
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I read with some amusement my reputation as a ladies' man. My friends are amused by that, too, because they know my life.

Amused Amusement Because Friends
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My sense of proprietorship has been so weak that actually I didn't pay attention and I lost the copyrights on a lot of the songs.

Actually Attention Been Has-Been
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Well, for one thing, in the tradition of Zen that I've practiced, there is no prayerful worship and there is no affirmation of a deity.

Affirmation Deity One Thing Practiced
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The older I get, the surer I am that I'm not running the show.
Am Get I Am Older
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I had the title poet, and maybe I was one for a while. Also, the title singer was kindly accorded me, even though I could barely carry a tune.

Also Barely Carry Could
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If I knew where the good songs came from, I'd go there more often.
Came Go Good Knew
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I always thought that poetry is the verdict that others give to a certain kind of writing. So to call yourself a poet is a kind of dangerous description. It's for others; it's for others to use.

Always Call Certain Dangerous
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Out of the thousands who are known or who want to be known as poets, maybe one or two are genuine and the rest are fakes, hanging around the sacred precincts, trying to look like the real thing.

Around Genuine Hanging Known
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And I had not much of a voice. I didn't play that great guitar either.

Either Great Guitar Had
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This is the most challenging activity that humans get into, which is love. You know, where we have the sense that we can't live without love. That life has very little meaning without love.

Activity Challenging Get Humans
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We're always experiencing joy or sadness. But there are lots of people who've closed down. And there are times in one's life when one has to close down just to regroup.

Always Close Closed Down
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And most people have a woman in their heart, most men have a woman in their heart and most women have a man in their heart.

Heart Man Men Most
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I don't think you can write novels on the road. You need a certain stability.

Certain Need Novels Road
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I can work on a verse for a very long time before realising it's not any good and then, and only then, can I discard it.

Any Before Discard Good
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I was 15 when I first became deeply touched by the rhythm and structure of words.

Became Deeply First Rhythm
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As a young man, Yeats spoke to me in a way I could understand. Shakespeare I couldn't understand, but Yeats I could. It was his subject matter and also I really admired the way he put his personal life on the line.

Admired Also Could He
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Journalists, especially English journalists, were very cruel to me. They said I only knew three chords when I knew five!

Chords Cruel English Five
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I always felt I was scraping the bottom of the barrel trying to get a song together.

Always Barrel Bottom Felt
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Most of the time one is discouraged by the work, but now and again by some grace something stands out and invites you to work on it, to elaborate it or animate it in some way. It's a mysterious process.

Again Animate Discouraged Elaborate
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I think the term poet is a very exalted term and should be applied to a man at the end of his work. When he looks back over the body of his work and he's written poetry then let the verdict be that he's a poet.

Applied Back Body End
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Music is the emotional life of most people.
Emotional Emotional Life Life Most
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Women stand for the objective world for a man. They stand for the thing that you're not and that's what you always reach for in a song.

Always Man Objective Reach
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I have a deep tribal sense. I grew up in a synagogue that my ancestors built. I sat in the third row. My family was decent. They were good people; they were handshake people. So I never had a sense of rebellion.

Ancestors Built Decent Deep
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I had girlfriends who really irritated me by their devotion to the Beatles. I didn't begrudge them their interest, and there were songs like 'Hey Jude' that I could appreciate. But they didn't seem to be essential to the kind of nourishment that I craved.

Appreciate Beatles Could Devotion
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As I approach the end of my life, I have even less and less interest in examining what have got to be very superficial evaluations or opinions about the significance of one's life or one's work. I was never given to it when I was healthy, and I am less given to it now.

About Am Approach End
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I never had the sense that there was an end: that there was a retirement or that there was a jackpot.

End Had Never Retirement
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One of the reasons I'm on tour is to meet people. I consider it a reconnaissance. You know, I consider myself like in a military operation. I don't feel like a citizen.

Citizen Consider Feel Know
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I've always been into self-dramatization. I intend to live forever.

Always Been Forever Intend
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Even the 'Negro' shows like 'Amos and Andy' and 'Beulah' are written largely by white writers - the better to preserve the stereotypes, I imagine.

Andy Better Even Imagine
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A little nonsense now and then, is cherished by the wisest men.

Cherished Little Nonsense Wisest
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We have so much time and so little to do. Strike that, reverse it.

Little Much Reverse Strike
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Nowadays you can go anywhere in the world in a few hours, and nothing is fabulous any more.

Few Hours Anywhere Fabulous
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Two hours of writing fiction leaves this writer completely drained. For those two hours he has been in a different place with totally different people.

Difference Hours Fiction Leaves
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Unless you have been to boarding-school when you are very young, it is absolutely impossible to appreciate the delights of living at home.
Boarding School Home Living
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I am only 8 years old, I told myself. No little boy of 8 has ever murdered anyone. It's not possible.

Anyone Murdered Little Possible
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An autobiography is a book a person writes about his own life and it is usually full of all sorts of boring details.

Autobiography Boring Book Life
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So, please, oh please, we beg, we pray, go throw your TV set away, and in its place you can install, a lovely bookcase on the wall.

Bookcase Lovely Please Throw
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A person is a fool to become a writer. His only compensation is absolute freedom. He has no master except his own soul, and that, I am sure, is why he does it
Become Writer Person Absolute
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A writer of fiction lives in fear. Each new day demands new ideas and he can never be sure whether he is going to come up with them or not.
Fiction Fear Demands Whether
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A fact is like a sack - it won't stand up if it's empty. To make it stand up, first you have to put in it all the reasons and feelings that caused it in the first place.

Caused Empty Fact Feelings
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I would love to spend all my time writing to you; I'd love to share with you all that goes through my mind, all that weighs on my heart, all that gives air to my soul; phantoms of art, dreams that would be so beautiful if they could come true.

Air All My Time Art Beautiful
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In bed my real love has always been the sleep that rescued me by allowing me to dream.

Allowing Always Bed Been
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Logic is one thing, the human animal another. You can quite easily propose a logical solution to something and at the same time hope in your heart of hearts it won't work out.

Animal Another Easily Heart
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Each of us, face to face with other men, is clothed with some sort of dignity, but we know only too well all the unspeakable things that go on in the heart.

Clothed Dignity Each Face
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When the characters are really alive before their author, the latter does nothing but follow them in their action, in their words, in the situations which they suggest to him.

Action Alive Author Before
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Anyone can be heroic from time to time, but a gentleman is something you have to be all the time.

Anyone From Time To Time Gentleman Heroic
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Every true man, sir, who is a little above the level of the beasts and plants does not live for the sake of living, without knowing how to live; but he lives so as to give a meaning and a value of his own to life.

Above Beasts Does Every
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Whoever has the luck to be born a character can laugh even at death. Because a character will never die! A man will die, a writer, the instrument of creation: but what he has created will never die!

Because Born Character Created
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