“Part of the work of writing a novel is to uncover the symmetries or connections that make it whole, which might not reveal itself at first.” WritingFirstsWholeMightNovelConnectionsSymmetry Author:Nicole Krauss
“I have a very strong sense of architecture in my novels. But at first it's sometimes like building a doorknob before you have a door, and a door before you have a room.” FirstsSometimesStrongRoomsNovelDoorsBuildingArchitectureVery Strong Author:Nicole Krauss
“Now that mine is almost over, I can say that the one thing that struck me most about life is the capacity for change. One day you're a person and the next day they tell you you're a dog. At first it's hard to bear, but after a while you learn not to look at it as a loss. There's even a moment when it becomes exhilarating to realize just how little needs to stay the same for you to continue the effort they call, for lack of a better word, being human.” NeedsFirstsHumansLooksLittlesPersonsI CanHardMomentsLife IsNextRealizingLossEffortOne ThingDogMinesBearsOne DayCapacityBeing HumanNext DayExhilaratingAlmost Over Book:The History of Love: A Novel Source: The History of Love: A Novel
“Maybe the first time you saw her you were ten. She was standing in the sun scratching her legs. Or tracing letters in the dirt with a stick. Her hair was being pulled. Or she was pulling someone's hair. And a part of you was drawn to her, and a part of you resisted--wanting to ride off on your bicycle, kick a stone, remain uncomplicated. In the same breath you felt the strength of a man, and a self-pity that made you feel small and hurt. Part of you thought: Please don't look at me. If you don't, I can still turn away. And part of you thought: Look at me.” IfsMenFeelsFirstsLooksMadeStillsI CanSelfTurnsFeltHurtSunSawsHairPleaseTenFirst TimeStandingStonesLettersBreathsSticksLegsPityKicksDirtPullingLook At MeBicycleSelf PityTracingUncomplicatedHistory Of Love Book:The History of Love: A Novel Source: The History of Love: A Novel
“When I was with Yoav, everything in me that had been sitting stood up. He had a way of looking at me with a kind of unabashed directness that made me shiver. It's something amazing to feel that for the first time someone is seeing you as you really are, not as they wish you, or you wish yourself, to be.” WayFeelsFirstsKindMadeWishSeeingSittingFirst TimeWish YouStood UpShiver Book:Great House: A Novel Source: Great House: A Novel
“Then I turned the page and at the top it said THINGS I MISS ABOUT M and there was a list of 15 things, and the first was THE WAY HE HOLDS THINGS. I did not understand how you can miss the way somebody holds things.” WayFirstsSaidMissingPagesLists Book:The History of Love: A Novel Source: The History of Love: A Novel
“Sometimes just to paint a head you have to give up the whole figure. To paint a leaf, you have to sacrifice the whole landscape. It might seem like you're limiting yourself at first, but after a while you realize that having a quarter of an inch of something you have a better chance of holding on to a certain feeling of the universe than if you pretended to be doing the whole sky.” IfsGivingFirstsSometimesWholeFeelingsSeemsMightCertainUniverseRealizingChanceSacrificeSkyFiguresLike YouGiving UpPaintLandscapeQuartersInchesLeafsHolding OnLimiting YourselfHistory Of Love Author:Nicole Krauss
“At first Babel longed for the use of just two words: Yes and No. But he knew that just to utter a single word would be to destroy the delicate fluency of silence.” FirstsTwoUseWould BeSilenceDelicateSingle WordBabelFluencyYes And No Book:The History of Love: A Novel Source: The History of Love: A Novel
“For me, what I am making in the novel is a place to live. When I first switched from poetry to novels, I was asked why, and the metaphor I came up with was about poems as rooms. You can make a room perfect, but then you have to shut the door and never go back, whereas a novel is like a house - it can never be perfect, but you can make a life in it.” FirstsHousePerfectRoomsNovelDoorsMetaphorPlaces To Live Author:Nicole Krauss
“I always wrote little things when I was younger. My first opus was a book of poems put down in a spiral notebook at five or six, handsomely accompanied by crayon illustrations.” FirstsLittlesBookFiveSixLittle ThingsNotebookIllustrationSpiralsCrayon Author:Nicole Krauss
“My first novel, 'Man Walks Into a Room,' is about a man who's lost his memory and has to start a second life. On one level, it's about how we create a coherent sense of self.” MenFirstsSelfLostMemoriesWalksLevelsRoomsNovelSense Of Self Author:Nicole Krauss
