Paul Auster Quotes

There is nothing I can't live without. I learned this attitude when I was a child.

My experience of ships is that on them one makes an interesting discovery about the world. One finds one can do without it completely.

Home has always been wherever I am. I'm not very attached to walls - or people, for that matter - so I've always loved travelling around. A book in my back pocket, a diary, and a pen is all I need to call any place home.

You must learn to exist with no religion, no country, no allies. You must learn to live alone in silence.

I think there is a very powerful wish that we all have of being self-contained and having sort of opted out or choosing to remove ourselves from society and to have no ties and no obligations, and even no possessions. To be free in a particular way.

I was amazed that what I needed to survive could be carried on my back. And, most surprising of all, that I could carry it.

When you find peace within, you also find that you can do without. This means simply that you no longer need the things of your outside world, and not needing is a great freedom.

But I love the idea - whether it's in my work or where I live - exploring new frontier, and I like putting myself in strange places and trying to survive and figure things out and gather up an infrastructure. I like knowing that I could figure out a way to live anywhere.

Nature never said to me: Do not be poor; still less did she say: Be rich; her cry to me was always: Be independent.

My childhood was bittersweet in many ways. We moved around a lot. By the time I was 10, I had travelled thousands of miles, often on my own. My parents were like my friends, so it felt like I didn't really have parents at all. But in a crazy way that was very liberating. It forced me to be independent, maybe a leader, and certainly a survivor.

I don't believe there is any point in holding on to too many things in life.

Real freedom is having nothing. I was freer when I didn't have a cent.

I can enjoy anywhere, and I can leave it. Life is about moving on.

Security depends not so much upon how much you have, as upon how much you can do without.

Place means nothing to me. I can be at home anywhere.

I don't like to attach myself to material things.

I'll dispose of my teeth as I see fit, and after they've gone, I'll get along. I started off living on gruel, and by God, I can always go back to it again.

Tramping is too easy with all this money. My days were more exciting when I was penniless and had to forage around for my next meal... I've decided that I'm going to live this life for some time to come. The freedom and simple beauty of it is just too good to pass up.

I'm no Buddhist monk, and I can't say I'm in love with renunciation in itself, or traveling an hour or more to print out an article I've written, or missing out on the N.B.A. Finals. But at some point, I decided that, for me at least, happiness arose out of all I didn't want or need, not all I did.

I like to walk about among the beautiful things that adorn the world; but private wealth I should decline, or any sort of personal possessions, because they would take away my liberty.

I've been trying for some time to develop a lifestyle that doesn't require my presence.

Those who are possessed by nothing possess everything.

I live and work alone and travel light, relying largely on my memory and making a point of letting intuition guide my way.

Astride a horse I am not, nor camel-like carry a load, Subjects I have none, nor follow any sultan's code; I worry not for what exists, nor fret for what is lost, I breathe with extreme ease, and live at very little cost.

I don't like possessions.