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Will Self

Will Self Quotes

Author

Will Self is a British author known for his distinctive style and sharp wit. His works span across various genres including novels, non-fiction, short stories, and plays. Born on September 26, 1961, Self's writing often delves into the complexities of modern society and the darker aspects of human nature.

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Famous Will Self Quotes

“This is the paradox for me: in failure alone is there any possibility of success. I don't think I'm alone in this - nor do I think it's an attitude that only prevails among people whose work is obviously "creative".”

People Thinking Attitude Creative Possibility Paradox

Author:Will Self

“I think in retrospect that all those 'alternative'modes of living were little more than exercises in arrested development.”

Thinking Littles Development Exercise Alternatives Arrested Retrospect

Author:Will Self

“I think the fundamental apprehension is that the city's an organism of some form, rather than being governed from above.”

Thinking Form Cities Fundamentals Organisms Apprehension

Author:Will Self

“I think it's a misreading of Dostoevsky to think of him as a programmatic theist. He's actually much closer to someone like William James. He's actually a pragmatist.”

Thinking Theist Pragmatists Misreading

Author:Will Self

“People tend to think of their lives as having a dramatic arc, because they read too much fiction.”

People Thinking Fiction Too Much Dramatic Arcs

Author:Will Self

“A short story is a shard, a sliver, a vignette. It's a biopsy on the human condition but it doesn't have this capacity to think autonomously for itself.”

Thinking Humans Stories Conditions Capacity Short Story Human Condition Vignettes Biopsy

Author:Will Self

“From time to time, as if heaven-sent to annoy, someone will ask me if I'm self-disciplined when it comes to my work. I usually look witheringly at them and snarl, 'What do you think?' I mean, how do you imagine anyone writes a quarter of a million words a year for publication?”

Ifs Thinking Writing Years Looks Mean Self Asks Heaven Millions Imagine Ask Me Quarters Annoying Publication Heaven Sent

Author:Will Self

“I don't think in terms of that bizarre tautology 'value for money' in my literary and journalistic work - and nor will I in my academic role. However, if I don't believe I'm helping my students towards a fuller and more empowering relationship with the world, then I'll resign.”

Ifs Thinking World Believe Helping Values Term Roles Students Don't Believe Empowering Academic Bizarre Journalistic Tautology

Author:Will Self

“I think I now understand why it is that the young are so very nostalgic. They have so little by way of personal history that they polish it up and make it shine like a treasured heirloom.”

Thinking Way Littles Young Shining Polish Nostalgic Treasured Personal History Heirlooms

Author:Will Self

“It is fair to say that insofar as sport is taken seriously by those who play it, then to that extent their conduct in play - their ability to deal with loss or victory, their ability to meld strategic thinking and brute force - can be taken as a small-scale model of how they, or others like them, might behave in life.”

Thinking Play Might Force Sports Loss Ability Deals Taken Victory Models Fairs Scales Behave Strategic Brutes Brute Force Strategic Thinking

Author:Will Self

“Nowadays, my mood ungoverned, I'm free to think the most outrageous things, such as: might it not be a good idea to insist that drug companies give their preparations names that tell the user what they really do?”

Thinking Giving Ideas Might Names Company Drug Mood Preparation Good Ideas Users Outrageous Drug Companies

Author:Will Self

“The British and American literary worlds operate in an odd kind of symbiosis: our critics think our contemporary novelists are not the stuff of greatness whereas certain contemporary Americans indubitably are. Their critics often advance the exact opposite: British fiction is cool, American naff.”

Thinking World Kind Certain Stuff Fiction Greatness Opposites Critics British Contemporary Odd Novelists Symbiosis

Author:Will Self

“I think of writing as a sculptural medium. You are not building things. You are removing things, chipping away at language to reveal a living form.”

Thinking Writing Form Language Building Mediums Building Things Chipping Away

Author:Will Self

“The seventies were my fattest decade. Overall I think the seventies were distinctly bulbous. People looked chunky, typefaces were rounded, writing implements penile.”

People Thinking Writing Design Decades Seventies Typography Typefaces

Book:How the Dead Live

Source: How the Dead Live

“...catching a glimpse of his rather hippyish form in a mirror, he wonders at this atavism of apparel, is it an inversion of foetal ontogeny, in which the phenotype passes through previous fashion stages? Soon there will be gaiters and gloves...I will probably die, he thinks, clad in animal skins.”

Thinking Form Dies Animal Wonder Stage Fashion Skins Mirrors Glimpse Catching Gloves Apparel Inversions

Author:Will Self

About the Author

Born: September 26, 1961
Known for: Author
Quotes: 131

Related Topics

Writing Ifs Thinking People Feels Age Book Fiction Looks Seems World Humans Mean Mind Social Wells Creative Facts Fall Film

Popular Topics

People Ifs Thinking Knows Men World Way Want Love Life Inspirational Needs Giving Feels Should Writing Trying Years Mind Firsts

Books & Sources

How the Dead LiveRelated source material

Junk Mail: ReissuedRelated source material

Liver: A Fictional Organ With a Surface Anatomy of Four LobesRelated source material

The Quantity Theory of InsanityRelated source material

The Quantity Theory of Insanity: ReissuedRelated source material

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