Nicholson Baker Quotes - Page 4

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• For me, as a beginning novelist, all other living writers form a control group for whom the world is a placebo.

  Nicholson Baker

  Novelists, Groups, World

  Nicholson Baker (2011). “U and I: A True Story”, p.16, Vintage

  19 Copy quote

• I like shelves full of books in a library, but if all books become electronic, the task of big research libraries remains the same - keep what's published in the form in which it appeared.

  Nicholson Baker

  Book, Library, Tasks

  "Ask The Author Live: Nicholson Baker On The Kindle". Q&As, www.newyorker.com. July 24, 2009.

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• I think I am done with Wikipedia for the time being. But I have a secret hope. Someone recently proposed a Wikimorgue - a bin of broken dreams where all rejects could still be read, as long as they weren't libelous or otherwise illegal.

  Nicholson Baker

  Dream, Thinking, Long

  Nicholson Baker (2012). “The Way the World Works: Essays”, p.205, Simon and Schuster

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• There was a lot of maneuvering on the part of the Roosevelt administration to get the stars aligned so that that attack would happen. There's just no question about that; you don't even have to look at the decoding of diplomatic cables or anything else. FDR's own admiral thought it was a bad idea to have the fleet confined in one place way out in the middle of the Pacific.

  Nicholson Baker

  Stars, Ideas, Looks

  "Nicholson Baker: Human Smoke" by James Mustich, www.barnesandnoble.com. April 7, 2008 Share.

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• The force of truth that a statement imparts, then, its prominence among the hordes of recorded observations that I may optionally apply to my own life, depends, in addition to the sense that it is argumentatively defensible, on the sense that someone like me, and someone I like, whose voice is audible and who is at least notionally in the same room with me, does or can possibly hold it to be compellingly true.

  Nicholson Baker

  Sympathy, Voice, Rooms

  Nicholson Baker (2011). “U and I: A True Story”, p.65, Vintage

  7 Copy quote

• Sometimes I think with the telephone that if I concentrate enough I could pour myself into it and I'd be turned into a mist and I would rematerialize in the room of the person I'm talking to. Is that too odd for you?

  Nicholson Baker

  Thinking, Talking, Rooms

  4 Copy quote

• The question any novel is really trying to answer is, Is life worth living?

  Nicholson Baker

  Trying, Answers, Novel

  "Nicholson Baker, The Art of Fiction No. 212". Interview with Sam Anderson in The Paris Review, Issue 198, www.theparisreview.org. Fall 2011.

  4 Copy quote

• People don't like to read text on computer screens (and reading a lot of text on iPod screens gets very tiring very soon, just about as soon as running out of battery power).

  Nicholson Baker

  Running, Reading, Ipods

  "Ask The Author Live: Nicholson Baker On The Kindle". Q&As, www.newyorker.com. July 24, 2009.

  4 Copy quote

• While I was writing I assumed it would be published under a pseudonym, and that liberated me: what I wrote was exactly what I wanted to read.

  Nicholson Baker

  Writing, Would Be, Pseudonyms

  "Nicholson Baker: 'Writing this book was the most fun I ever had'" by Peter Conrad, www.theguardian.com. August 13, 2011.

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• I wanted to apprentice myself to the dailiness of the war's beginning phase. It's truer and more frightening that way - when you're afloat on a little dingy in the midst of it all.

  Nicholson Baker

  War, Phases, Littles

  "Nicholson Baker: Human Smoke". Interview with James Mustich, www.barnesandnoble.com. April 7, 2008.

  4 Copy quote

• In fact, you could make the argument that a historian like Shlomo Aronson does in passing in one of his books, that the bombing campaign united the German nation behind Hitler, and actually contributed to the sustaining of his power.

  Nicholson Baker

  Book, Doe, Campaigns

  "Nicholson Baker: Human Smoke". Interview with James Mustich, www.barnesandnoble.com. April 7, 2008.

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• I did not know that the planning for biological and chemical warfare was so widespread in England, and even in France before France fell. It was news to me that there had been talk, even in the First World War, of dropping Colorado beetles on German potato crops and that kind of thing.

  Nicholson Baker

  War, England, Colorado

  "Nicholson Baker: Human Smoke". Interview with James Mustich, www.barnesandnoble.com. April 7, 2008.

  4 Copy quote

• It's troubling to see how often Winston Churchill is a proponent of massive programs that are really aimed at civilians - starvation blockades and chemical warfare stockpiles and so on.

  Nicholson Baker

  Warfare, Program, Chemicals

  "Nicholson Baker: Human Smoke". Interview with James Mustich, www.barnesandnoble.com. April 7, 2008.

  6 Copy quote

• What's somewhat puzzling is that Churchill himself knew what the reaction would be to any sort of aerial attack on cities, because in 1938 he said that in a future war British cities would be attacked by bombing, and that the response would be that all men would want to join the fight because they would be so incensed by this cowardly manner of attack. Which is a very natural response: when something drops on you from the air and blows up a bunch of buildings and kills people in their sleep, the reaction is going to be rage, confusion, and a search for something to destroy in retaliation.

  Nicholson Baker

  War, Sleep, Fighting

  Source: www.barnesandnoble.com

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• I'm a sucker for interiors and carefully, beautifully filmed people sitting in a big room. My appetites are simple.

  Nicholson Baker

  Simple, People, Sitting

  "Nicholson Baker Navigates The Buffet". Interview with Jared Levy, www.interviewmagazine.com. September 16, 2013.

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• Writing has to do with truth-telling. When you're writing, let's say, an essay for a magazine, you try to tell the truth at every moment. You do your best to quote people accurately and get everything right. Writing a novel is a break from that: freedom. When you're writing a novel, you are in charge; you can beef things up.

  Nicholson Baker

  Writing, People, Trying

  "Nicholson Baker Navigates The Buffet" by Jared Levy, www.interviewmagazine.com. September 16, 2013.

  4 Copy quote

• In the novel, I can change things and simplify, and make events work towards whatever meanings I'm trying to get at more efficiently.

  Nicholson Baker

  Trying, Events, Simplify

  "Nicholson Baker Navigates The Buffet". Interview with Jared Levy, www.interviewmagazine.com. September 16, 2013.

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