“In the old physics, three times two equals six and two times three equals 6 are reversible propositions. Not in quantum physics. Three times two and two times three are two different matters, distinct and separate propositions.” TwoDifferentMatterScienceThreeSixMathematicsPhysicsQuantumPropositionsThree TimesQuantum Physics Author:Paul Auster
“I wanted to do something different. Therefore, the first person I thought would have been too exclusionary. It would have said me, me, me, me, me. I, I, I, I, I. As if I were pushing away my experiences from the experiences of others. Because basically what I was trying to do was show our commonality. I mean to say, in the very ordinariness of what I recount I think perhaps the reader will find resonances with his or her own life.” IfsThinkingTryingFirstsMeanPersonsHas BeensSaidDifferentShowsWantedReaderPushingFirst PersonResonanceCommonalityOrdinarinessPushing Away Author:Paul Auster
“Everyone reads a different book. That's what's interesting. Everyone sees a different film, as well. We bring our past lives to whatever work of art we're experiencing at that moment, and that's what makes it interesting. It's not mathematics. There are different answers for different people.” PeopleWellsArtBookDifferentMomentsPastFilmAnswersInterestingMathematicsThat MomentWorks Of ArtOur PastDifferent PeoplesPast LifeWhatever WorksDifferent Books Author:Paul Auster
“I write different kinds of sentences, depending on what the book is, and what the project is. I see my work evolving. I'm writing long sentences now, something I didn't use to do. I had some kind of breakthrough, five or six years ago, in Invisible, and in Sunset Park after that. I discovered a new way to write sentences. And I find it exhilarating.” WayWritingYearsKindLongBookDifferentUseFiveSixProjectsYears AgoSentencesInvisibleEvolveParksSunsetDifferent KindsNew WaysBreakthroughExhilarating Author:Paul Auster
“I feel I'm discovering something new, a different rhythm, and I guess these rhythms have a lot to do with walking, too, but it's a longer trajectory now. I'm traveling greater distances with each sentence. But I don't write about walking that much anymore.” FeelsWritingDifferentGreaterWalkingDistanceSentencesRhythmSomething NewDiscoveringTrajectoryDiscovering SomethingDiscovering Something New Author:Paul Auster
“The mental state I'm in is completely different, but the act of trying to write is the same. I mean, in all instances you try to write good sentences. But in a novel you're free to do whatever you want, and in the autobiographical works you can't make things up.” WantWritingTryingMeanDifferentStatesNovelSentencesInstanceDo Whatever You Want Author:Paul Auster
“What I'm trying to do [in Winter Journal] is to tell the story of a man's life from birth, but there are different versions of him, four different versions.” MenTryingDifferentStoriesFourBirthWinterVersionsJournal Author:Paul Auster
“The tone of every book is slightly different; there's a music that each has that is distinct from all the others.” BookDifferentTone Book:Conversations with Paul Auster Source: Conversations with Paul Auster
“In my life, I've lived in very different kinds of places - very tiny rooms when I was young. And you do learn to cope with it. The funny thing is, as you begin to inhabit larger places, it's very interesting how quickly you adapt to your space. What seems enormous at first becomes natural after a few weeks.” FirstsKindDifferentSeemsYoungNaturalSpaceInterestingRoomsWeekTinyEnormousDifferent KindsVery InterestingFunny Things Author:Paul Auster
“What if I had been born during a war and I lived in an occupied city, and people were being taken out and shot every day? Everything would be different - even after the war ended, my future would be very different. Look at what these poor people in Aleppo are going through. The children, the ones who survive, are going to be absolutely altered by what they live through, and you and I, luckily, have never had to deal with that.” PeopleChildrenDifferentWarPoorTakenWhat IfPoor PeopleMy Future Author:Paul Auster
“In general, lives seem to veer abruptly from one thing to another, to jostle and bump, to squirm. A person heads in one direction, turns sharply in mid-course, stalls, drifts, starts up again. Nothing is ever known, and inevitably we come to a place quite different from the one we set out for.” PersonsDifferentSeemsTurnsCoursesKnownOne ThingBumpsOne Direction Book:The New York Trilogy Source: The New York Trilogy
“Eighteen is a terrible age, and while I walked around with the conviction that I was somehow more grown-up than my classmates, the truth was that I had merely found a different way of being young.” WayDifferentAgeYoungFoundTerribleConvictionDifferent WaysEighteenClassmates Book:Moon Palace: A Novel (Penguin Ink) Source: Moon Palace: A Novel (Penguin Ink)
“I've dealt with numbers all my life, of course, and after a while you begin to feel that each number has a personality of its own. A twelve is very different from a thirteen, for example. Twelve is upright, conscientious, intelligent, whereas thirteen is a loner, a shady character who won't think twice about breaking the law to get what he wants. Eleven is tough, an outdoorsman who likes tramping through woods and scaling mountains; ten is rather simpleminded, a bland figure who always does what he's told; nine is deep and mystical, a Buddha of contemplation.” ThinkingWantFeelsDoeDifferentCharacterLawCoursesNumbersFiguresExamplePersonalityTenMountainToughIntelligentWoodsMathNineLikesMathematicalContemplationTwelveMysticalElevenLonerThirteenBlandThink TwiceShadyNumbers And MathBreaking The LawOutdoorsman Author:Paul Auster
“Translators are the shadow heroes of literature, the often forgotten instruments that make it possible for different cultures to talk to one another, who have enabled us to understand that we all, from every part of the world, live in one world.” WorldDifferentCultureLiteratureHeroShadowInstrumentsForgottenDifferent CulturesTranslators Author:Paul Auster
