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4391 Novelist Quotes

Every man is wise when attacked by a mad dog; fewer when pursued by a mad woman; only the wisest survive when attacked by a mad notion.

Attacked Dog Every Fewer
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I see Canada as a country torn between a very northern, rather extraordinary, mystical spirit which it fears and its desire to present itself to the world as a Scotch banker.

Banker Between Canada Country
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There is no nonsense so gross that society will not, at some time, make a doctrine of it and defend it with every weapon of communal stupidity.
Communal Defend Doctrine Every
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No people in the world can make you feel so small as the English.
English Feel Make People
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Students today are a pretty solemn lot. One of the really notable achievements of the twentieth century has been to make the young old before their time.

Achievements Been Before Century
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People don't make changes because things are wonderful.
Because Changes Make People
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I'm so used to being misunderstood.
Being Being Misunderstood Misunderstood Used
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I've never gotten used to winter and never will.
Gotten Never Used Will
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I love planting. I love digging holes, putting plants in, tapping them in. And I love weeding, but I don't like tidying up the garden afterwards.

Afterwards Digging Garden Holes
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I like cooking, but I think someone else ought to do the dishes.
Cooking Dishes Else I Think
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The garden has taught me to live, to appreciate the times when things are fallow and when they're not.

Appreciate Garden Live Me
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I was given a dictionary when I was seven, and I read it because I had nothing else to read. I read it the way you read a book.

Because Book Dictionary Else
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When once I got to America I fell in love with hippie culture, and I've always wanted to live in the country and grow organic vegetables.

Always America Country Culture
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I can write anywhere. I actually wrote more than I ever did when I had small children. My children were never a hindrance.

Actually Anywhere Children Did
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I suppose you could say I love outlaw American culture.

American American Culture Could Culture
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I like to be in my pajamas all day. Sometimes I don't wash for days because I like to read and sit around. I like to eat in bed.

All Day Around Because Bed
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I like melancholy. I like to pretend that I'm alone in the world and I'm just sort of abandoned.

Abandoned Alone Just Like
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Race is not particularly interesting to me. Power is. Who has power and who doesn't. Slavery interests me because it's an incredible violation that has not stopped. It's necessary to talk about that. Race is a diversion.

About Because Diversion Incredible
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One doesn't have to pursue unhappiness. It comes to you. You come into the world screaming. You cry when you're born because your lungs expand. You breathe. I think that's really kind of significant. You come into the world crying, and it's a sign that you're alive.

Alive Because Born Breathe
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I loved Charlotte Bronte when I was little, and I wanted to be Charlotte Bronte the way people want to be a princess.

Charlotte Little Loved People
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I picked a name that was a combination of an island name and a very English name. Havana was one choice and Dominico was another, but I liked the combination of Jamaica Kincaid.

Another Choice Combination English
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I grew up in this poor place, with very limited circumstances, at about 16 years of age was sent by my family to work, and instead of remaining in the position into which I was sent, I somehow worked my way out of it without any help from anyone, just luck.

About Age Any Anyone
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The English language started out as a distortion in my life, but nothing remains the same, and so the distortion is now just normal. That is one of the things that will happen to all distortions: They become normal and turn into something else.

Become Distortion Else English
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You know how some people write every day at a certain point? I'm not like that. I carry something around for a long time. I weigh the words and the sentences. I weigh the paragraphs. The process is much more meditative for me.

Around Carry Certain Certain Point
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Children like their mothers especially to be standing still and watching them, even if they are sleeping. At least that's how I felt. There's nothing wrong with the self-interest of children; it's just the way they are.

Children Even Felt How
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Tomorrow exists even though I may not exist in it.
Even Exist Exists I May Not
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I write a lot in my head. The revision goes on internally. It's not spontaneous and it doesn't have a schedule.

Goes Head I Write Lot
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People only say I'm angry because I'm black and I'm a woman. But all sorts of people write with strong feeling, the way I do.

Angry Because Black Feeling
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I have no credentials. I have no money. I literally come from a poor place. I was a servant. I dropped out of college. The next thing you know I'm writing for the 'New Yorker,' I have this sort of life, and it must seem annoying to people.

Annoying College Come Credentials
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I have a photograph of myself when I was 2 years of age, and I don't recognize the person in the photograph. She doesn't look anything like me, and I can't find any trace of her in me physically. And yet I remember her very, very well - even her anxiety.

Age Anxiety Any Anything
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I grew up in a place where books were very, very scarce, and I loved to read. I used to read the writing on my breakfast Ovaltine over and over again because it was in front of me, and I couldn't help but read anything that was in front of me.

Again Anything Because Books
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I come from a little island with the Caribbean Sea on one side and the Atlantic Ocean on the other. I come from, really, nowhere, and for me, the fiction and the nonfiction, creative or otherwise, all come from the same place.

Atlantic Atlantic Ocean Caribbean Come
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When I write nonfiction, it's always absolutely true. There will be no moment in my nonfiction where I have made something up and have to apologize to the bullying hostess of a talk show.

Absolutely Always Apologize Bullying
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When I moved out here to California, I became obsessed with geology. It's impossible not to be interested in the earth if you live in a place like this. I started to read a lot of geology, much to the horror of my friends.

Became California Earth Friends
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At the time I was taught to read, it was an Eden-like time of my life. My mother adored me. Everyone adored me. So I associate reading with enormous pleasure.

Adored Associate Enormous Everyone
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One of the things reading does, it makes your loneliness manageable if you are an essentially lonely person.

Does Essentially Loneliness Lonely
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I'll read anything. In fact, I'll read while I'm doing other things, which is not a good idea.

Anything Doing Fact Good
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Humor is an affirmation of dignity, a declaration of man's superiority to all that befalls him.

Affirmation Declaration Dignity Him
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The avantgarde are people who don't exactly know where they want to go, but are the first to get there.

Exactly First Get Go
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It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.

Better To fail Originality Succeed
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A smile is the chosen vehicle of all ambiguities.

A smile Chosen vehicle Ambiguities
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Better to sleep with a sober cannibal than a drunk Christian.

Better Sleep Sober cannibal Christian
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I try all things, I achieve what I can.

Try All things Achieve
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Talk not to me of blasphemy, man; I'd strike the sun if it insulted me.

Talk Blasphemy Man Insulted
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For there is no folly of the beast of the earth which is not infinitely outdone by the madness of men

Folly Beast Earth Madness
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Ignorance is the parent of fear.

Ignorance Parent Fear
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I love to sail forbidden seas, and land on barbarous coasts.
Love Sail Forbidden sea
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A man thinks that by mouthing hard words he understands hard things.

Man thinks Mouthing Hard words Things
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Human madness is oftentimes a cunning and most feline thing. When you think it fled, it may have but become transfigured into some still subtler form.

Human madness Cunning Think
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Think not, is my eleventh commandment; and sleep when you can, is my twelfth.

Think not Commandment Sleep You can
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