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8803 Writer Quotes

Writing is about culture and should be about everything. That's what makes it what it is.

About Culture Everything Makes
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I know when I go and see a writer, the first thing I think to myself is, 'Are they the character in the book?' You just can't help it; it's the way people are.

Book Character First First Thing
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It's that kind of thing that readers have. I have it as a reader myself: that expectation that the writer will be that person. Then I meet other writers and realize that they're not.

Expectation Kind Meet Myself
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It's like nothing's really happening. Our culture is almost dead.
Almost Culture Dead Happening
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When you grow up in a place, you always think it's mundane. Then you travel around and live in different places, and you realise that you've got it the wrong way 'round.

Always Around Different Different Places
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It's where you come from that's the strange, exotic, quirky, mad place.

Come Exotic Mad Place
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When people write a novel, they want to have that reach and that impact. To get it with a first novel, you can either see it as an albatross or a calling card.

Calling Calling Card Card Either
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I created something that became a phenomenon without becoming a prisoner to it.

Became Becoming Created Phenomenon
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I don't want everything to be flowery perfection. I like it there to be a charge behind it, you know?

Behind Charge Everything Know
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I just want to get on and tell stories.
Get Just Stories Tell
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We have to give feminism a shot. Out of sheer self preservation, we have to stand aside and let women run the show.

Aside Feminism Give Out
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Historically, men have a hard time getting onboard with feminism, but I think that's changing.

Changing Feminism Getting Hard
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'Ulysses' is like a big box of tricks that you can dive into. Each time you read it, you find something new.

Big Box Dive Each
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Sometimes a book influences me because it winds me up. There'll be something that gets under my skin and makes me think that I can do better.

Because Better Book Gets
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Standard English is very imperialistic, controlled, and precise; it's not got a lot of funk or soul to it.

Controlled English Funk Got
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I'm the worst employee in the world. I'll cheat and steal time and resources from my employer, although I'll con everybody into believing I'm essential to the operation.

Although Believing Cheat Con
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When I left school at 16, I became an apprentice television and radio technician, and was paid £17 a week, which was decent money in 1976. But the job turned sour when I gave myself an electric shock while repairing a television set.

Apprentice Became Decent Electric
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It's very difficult to be objective about yourself and your own circumstances, but one thing I do know about is that I grew up surrounded by storytellers.

About Circumstances Difficult Grew
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Everybody in my family were great storytellers. My dad and his brothers would just go on and on; they could tell amazing stories. I think it was something to do with the Celtic, oral storytelling tradition. People very much had that propensity towards telling tales.

Amazing Brothers Celtic Could
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The idea is not enough. And the most annoying thing for me as a writer is that people will come up to me and say, 'Hey, I've got a great idea for a book. I'm not a writer, but I've got a great story.'

Annoying Book Come Enough
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That's the kind of consumer society we live in. We're always looking for the next product that's going to change your life instead of just going out and changing your life.

Always Change Changing Consumer
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A lot of people pulled me up after 'Trainspotting' for its absence of politics, but the argument I make is that the absence of politics is political as well.

Absence After Argument Lot
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So many people have become divorced from the system, criminalised by their lifestyle.

Become Divorced Lifestyle Many
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The idea of just sitting at home on Facebook worries me. I think we should all get out more.

Facebook Get Home I Think
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It's part of me, Scotland. I'm still immersed in it even though I am not there.

Am Even I Am Immersed
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I think that every project offers an opportunity to reinvent process as well as content.

Content Every I Think Offers
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Sometimes I work purely 8-12 shifts, banging stuff into the computer. Other times, my office is like a scene from a detective movie, with Post-it Notes, plans, photographs all stuck on the walls and arrows going everywhere, and it's 4 A.M.

Arrows Banging Computer Detective
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I don't perceive an audience at all when I write a book. It's pure self-indulgence.

Audience Book I Write Perceive
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I think the novel is at one end of the art-entertainment continuum - the play in the middle - while TV and cinema veer a bit more towards entertainment.

Bit Cinema Continuum End
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It's been a good thing for me to try and understand America.
A Good Thing America Been Good
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We have to believe in free-will. We've got no choice.
Believe Choice Got No Choice
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If you keep saying things are going to be bad, you have a good chance of being a prophet.

Bad Being Chance Going
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There will be no justice as long as man will stand with a knife or with a gun and destroy those who are weaker than he is.

Destroy Gun He Justice
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Every creator painfully experiences the chasm between his inner vision and its ultimate expression.

Between Creator Every Experiences
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I did not become a vegetarian for my health, I did it for the health of the chickens.

Become Chickens Did Health
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Life is God's novel. Let him write it.
God Him Life Novel
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Doubt is part of all religion. All the religious thinkers were doubters.

Doubt Part Religion Religious
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The analysis of character is the highest human entertainment.
Analysis Character Entertainment Highest
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When you betray somebody else, you also betray yourself.
Also Betray Else Somebody
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I am thankful, of course, for the prize and thankful to God for each story, each idea, each word, each day.

Am Course Day Each
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When I was a little boy, they called me a liar, but now that I am grown up, they call me a writer.

Am Boy Call Grown
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We write not only for children but also for their parents. They, too, are serious children.

Also Children Only Parents
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A story to me means a plot where there is some surprise. Because that is how life is - full of surprises.

Because Full How Life
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We know what a person thinks not when he tells us what he thinks, but by his actions.

Actions He His Know
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What nature delivers to us is never stale. Because what nature creates has eternity in it.

Because Creates Eternity Nature
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Originality is not seen in single words or even in sentences. Originality is the sum total of a man's thinking or his writing.

Even His Man Originality
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The very essence of literature is the war between emotion and intellect, between life and death. When literature becomes too intellectual - when it begins to ignore the passions, the emotions - it becomes sterile, silly, and actually without substance.

Actually Becomes Begins Between
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We must believe in free will, we have no choice.
Believe Choice Free Free Will
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For those who are willing to make an effort, great miracles and wonderful treasures are in store.

Effort Great Make Miracles
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The New England conscience doesn't keep you from doing what you shouldn't - it just keeps you from enjoying it.

Conscience Doing England Enjoying
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