V. S. Naipaul Quotes - Page 4

Quotes about:

• A civilization which has taken over the world cannot be said to be dying.

  V. S. Naipaul

  Taken, Civilization, Dying

  6 Copy quote

• If it was Europe that gave us on the coast some idea of our history, it was Europe, I feel, that also introduced us to the lie.

  V. S. Naipaul

  Lying, Europe, Ideas

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• The first 50 years of the cinema were absolutely great years. Original minds were at work establishing the ways to tell a story. And what is happening now is a copying, a pastiche-ing of what was done by great men.

  V. S. Naipaul

  Men, Years, Great Year

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• Many writers tend to write summing-up books at the end of their lives.

  V. S. Naipaul

  Book, Writing, Ends

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• The family feuds or the village feuds often had to do with an idea of honor. Perhaps it was a peasant idea; perhaps this idea of honor is especially important to a society without recourse to law or without confidence in law.

  V. S. Naipaul

  Law, Ideas, Honor

  V. S. Naipaul (2012). “A Turn in the South”, p.53, Pan Macmillan

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• The biography of a writer - or even the autobiography - will always have this incompleteness.

  V. S. Naipaul

  Biographies, Autobiography, Incompleteness

  V. S. Naipaul (2012). “Literary Occasions: Essays”, p.189, Pan Macmillan

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• Nothing was made in Trinidad.

  V. S. Naipaul

  Made, Trinidad

  "A singular writer" by Maya Jaggi, www.theguardian.com. September 7, 2001.

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• Some lesser husbands built a latrine on the hillside.

  V. S. Naipaul

  Husband, Built

  V. S. Naipaul (2012). “A House For Mr Biswas: Picador Classic”, p.290, Pan Macmillan

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• If you decide to move to another country and to live within its laws you don't express your disregard for the essence of the culture. It's a form of aggression.

  V. S. Naipaul

  Country, Moving, Law

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• I wish my prose to be transparent—I don't want the reader to stumble over me; I want him to look through what I'm saying to what I'm describing. I don't want him ever to say, Oh, goodness, how nicely written this is. That would be a failure.

  V. S. Naipaul

  Writing, Wish, Want Him

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• I often wonder what would have happened to me if I hadn't made that decision. I suppose I would have sunk. I suppose I would have found some kind of hole and tried to hide or pass. After all, we make ourselves according to the ideas we have of our possibilities. I would have hidden in my hole and been crippled by my sentimentality, doing what I was doing, and doing it well, but always looking for the wailing wall. And I would never have seen the world as the rich place that it is. You wouldn't have seen me here in Africa, doing what I do.

  V. S. Naipaul

  Wall, Ideas, Decision

  V. S. Naipaul (2012). “A Bend in the River”, p.94, Pan Macmillan

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• All the things that were read to me by my father were stories about things becoming all right.

  V. S. Naipaul

  Dad, Father, Stories

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• I'm my own writer. My material means I'm entirely separate.

  V. S. Naipaul

  Mean, Individuality, Materials

  "A singular writer" by Maya Jaggi, www.theguardian.com. September 7, 2001.

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• I became very interested in the Islamic question, and thought I would try to understand it from the roots, ask very simple questions and somehow make a narrative of that discovery.

  V. S. Naipaul

  Islamic, Simple, Discovery

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• In a way my reputation has become that of the curmudgeon.

  V. S. Naipaul

  Way, Reputation, Curmudgeon

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• I've never abandoned the novel.

  V. S. Naipaul

  Abandoned, Novel

  "A singular writer" by Maya Jaggi, www.theguardian.com. September 7, 2001.

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• The reason is that they define how I have gone about my business. I have trusted to intuition. I did it at the beginning. I do it even now. I have no idea how things might turn out, where in my writing I might go next.

  V. S. Naipaul

  Writing, Ideas, Intuition

  V. S. Naipaul (2012). “Literary Occasions: Essays”, p.189, Pan Macmillan

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• I don't feel I can speak with authority for many other people.

  V. S. Naipaul

  People, Speak, Authority

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• The writer is all alone.

  V. S. Naipaul

  All Alone

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• There are two ways of talking. One is the easy way, where you talk lightly, and the other one is the considered way. The considered way is what I have put my name to.

  V. S. Naipaul

  Talking, Names, Two

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• All the details of the life and the quirks and the friendships can be laid out for us, but the mystery of the writing will remain. No amount of documentation, however fascinating, can take us there.

  V. S. Naipaul

  Writing, Details, Documentation

  V. S. Naipaul (2012). “Literary Occasions: Essays”, p.189, Pan Macmillan

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• I know my father and my mother, but beyond that I cannot go. My ancestry is blurred.

  V. S. Naipaul

  Mother, Father, Ancestry

  V. S. Naipaul (2012). “A Writer's People: Ways of Looking and Feeling”, p.42, Pan Macmillan

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• I've been a free man.

  V. S. Naipaul

  Men, Free Man

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• I have a very small public.

  V. S. Naipaul

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• I grew up in a small place and left it when I was quite young and entered the bigger world.

  V. S. Naipaul

  World, Grew Up, Bigger

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