Geoff Dyer Quotes

Writer

Geoff Dyer is a British writer known for his distinctive travel literature and essays. His works often use travel as a backdrop to explore themes of personal identity, cultural differences, and memory.

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Famous Geoff Dyer Quotes

“The process of book writing for me is entirely one of trial and error.”

Writing Book Process Errors Trials Book Writing Trial And Error

Author:Geoff Dyer

“In my 30s I used to go to the gym even though I hated it. The purpose of going to the gym was to postpone the day when I would stop going. That's what writing is to me: a way of postponing the day when I won't do it any more, the day when I will sink into a depression so profound it will be indistinguishable from perfect bliss.”

Way Writing Used Purpose Perfect Profound Hated Bliss Gym Postponing

Author:Geoff Dyer

“I always hope to come up with a style of writing that's appropriate to the material and I felt like this was. And then there's plenty of - I don't know if it's the right word but - lampooning, but it's always at my expense.”

Writing Style Plenty

Author:Geoff Dyer

“I would hope that nothing that I write would ever seem earnest because I subscribe absolutely to Franz Nietzsche's claim when he says, "Ah, earnestness, the sure sign of a slow mind." Earnest people are always a bit on the thick side in my experience.”

People Writing Mind Earnest Earnestness

Author:Geoff Dyer

“For so long I didn't have any kind of readership at all - I'd get published, but not read - the idea of writing for an audience is so anathema to me, it's never bothered me.”

Writing Kind Long Audience Bothered

Author:Geoff Dyer

“Have regrets. They are fuel. On the page they flare into desire.”

Writing Desire Regret Pages Fuel Flare

Author:Geoff Dyer

“Beware of clichés. Not just the clichés that Martin Amis is at war with. There are clichés of response as well as expression. There are clichés of observation and of thought - even of conception. Many novels, even quite a few adequately written ones, are clichés of form which conform to clichés of expectation.”

Writing Wells War Form Novel Written Expression Expectations Response Observation Conception Conform

Author:Geoff Dyer

“Have more than one idea on the go at any one time. If it's a choice between writing a book and doing nothing I will always choose the latter. It's only if I have an idea for two books that I choose one rather than the other. I always have to feel that I'm bunking off from something.”

Ifs Feels Writing Two Book Ideas Choices Latter One Time Doing Nothing Writing A Book

Author:Geoff Dyer

“When you are lonely, writing can keep you company. It is also a form of self-compensation, a way of making up for things—as opposed to making things up—that did not quite happen.”

Way Writing Self Happens Form Company Lonely Compensation Making Up

Book:Yoga for People Who Can't Be Bothered to Do It

Source: Yoga for People Who Can't Be Bothered to Do It

“I’m so revolted by writers taking themselves seriously that, as a kind of protest, I’ve deprioritized the role of writing in my life. I do it when I’ve not got anything better to do – and even then I often do nothing instead.”

Writing Kind Roles Protest

Author:Geoff Dyer

About the Author

Born: June 5, 1958
Known for: Writer
Quotes: 67

Books & Sources

Another Great Day at Sea: Life Aboard the USS George H. W. BushRelated source material

Out of Sheer Rage: Wrestling With D.H. LawrenceRelated source material

Out of Sheer Rage: In the Shadow of D. H. LawrenceRelated source material

Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi: A NovelRelated source material

Out of Sheer Rage: Wrestling with D. H. LawrenceRelated source material

Paris Trance: A RomanceRelated source material

Selfish, Shallow, and Self-Absorbed: Sixteen Writers on The Decision Not To Have KidsRelated source material

The Ongoing Moment: A Book About PhotographsRelated source material

Yoga for People Who Can't Be Bothered to Do ItRelated source material

Yoga for People Who Can't Be Bothered to Do It: EssaysRelated source material

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