Paul Auster Quotes

When we read about reading, we get to share an experience that is usually kept private. Incisive descriptions of reading help us to understand what is going on when our eyes move across words on the page.

A literary creation can appeal to us in all sorts of ways-by its theme, subject, situations, characters. But above all it appeals to us by the presence in it of art. It is the presence of art in Crime and Punishment that moves us deeply rather than the story of Raskolnikov's crime.

Yeah, I'd say there's probably about a couple of hundred people I admire - but that has nothing to do with what a person does themselves. That's why I never mention these things. You can read a detective novel you really like, but it had no bearing on what you do yourself, you just think, "God, how this guy wove this together!" Or you get into the energy of it. Or you see a poem which makes a great statement about sentiment, but it's not sentimental.

I wanted to work with Barry [ Jenkins]. I am a big fan of his from Medicine for Melancholy years ago. Tarrell [Alvin McCraney] is my favorite playwright. I will do anything he asks. The characters were so clearly drawn and three dimensional. It was an easy thing to say yes to.

For me, a novel relying too heavily on a single idea might be a dry, deadly thing unless it possesses an animating force.

You know, we didn't want to kill anyone, but we knew that "Star Wars" is a generational tale. It always is. And for it to have some guts and some resonance and true stakes, I don't think that everyone could have come through the story unscathed.

When, after having read a work, loftier thoughts arise in your mind and noble and heartfelt feelings animate you, do not look for any other rule to judge it by; it is fine and written in a masterly manner.

A novel must give a sense of permanence as well as a sense of life.

I can't think of another writer who can move me as surreptitiously as Vian does

...our enjoyment of the great works of literature depends more upon the depth of our sympathy than upon our understanding.

Children read books, not reviews. They don't give a hoot about critics.

Isn't it funny the way some combinations of words can give you--almost apart from their meaning--a thrill like music?

A Mozart symphony is very much like a Pixar movie - in the sense that Pixar movies are hugely successful because they operate on several levels at the same time.

So many people can now write competent stories that the short story is in danger of dying of competence.

Literature is a mystical place for me. It's not dry. It's where miracles happen.

Reading Chekhov was just like the angels singing to me.

You should approach Joyce's Ulysses as the illiterate Baptist preacher approaches the Old Testament: with faith.

We are too civil to books. For a few golden sentences we will turn over and actually read a volume of four or five hundred pages.

Traditionally, the love of reading has been born and nurtured in high school English class

The story is not in the words; it's in the struggle.

Confusing the author and the character seems to be a popular and rather unsophisticated reaction to books.

My bag is approaching something and taking it to another place. Like words-you take a word and by the time you've finished with it, you milk it and you go through the emotion of what it is, what it means there and then.

Because of the influence of the cinema, most reports or stories of violence are so pictorial that they lack content or meaning. The camera brings them to our eyes, but does not settle them in our minds, nor in time.

A good novel begins with a small question and ends with a bigger one.

If your book doesn't keep you up nights when you are writing it, it won't keep anyone up nights reading it.