Home / Quotes / Quote by Paul Auster

Quote by Paul Auster

“When I look back at experience [with my father], all I can do is feel pity. You know, how torn he was about how to act, what to say. And it seems an important story to me.”

Quote by Paul Auster

Author

Paul Auster is an American author known for his unique narrative style and philosophical reflections. His works often explore themes of identity, memory, and reality, and have won him a wide audience. more

You May Also Like

“The ideal reader's the same, and I suppose this person has never had a face or a gender or an age. It's just some kind of unknown other who will be sympathetic and read each word carefully and understand what I'm writing about. I suppose every writer feels this.”

Feels Writing Kind Persons Age Faces Reader Ideals Gender Sympathetic

Author:Paul Auster

“Writing is, after all, a gesture towards other people, giving something to others. And so it's not a completely hermetic exercise. It's really an opening up.”

People Giving Writing Exercise Opening Gestures Opening Up

Author:Paul Auster

“In fact, writing, especially writing autobiographical works, and this is actually the fourth time I've done it, each time I've done it I've felt deeply immersed in the material as I'm doing it, and then it's over and everything is the same.”

Writing Done Facts Felt Materials Fourth

Author:Paul Auster

“I think there might be some pressure released while I'm doing autobiographical work, but afterwards everything remains the same.”

Thinking Might Pressure Remains

Author:Paul Auster

“I think most writers can't really think about their work without a kind of revulsion. And I think that's probably why we keep going back and trying again, trying to do better each time.”

Thinking Trying Kind Keep Going Revulsion

Author:Paul Auster

“My children haven't read 'Winter Journal'. They have read some of my work, but I really don't foist it on them. I want them to be free to discover it in their own good time. I think reading an intimate memoir by your father - or an intimate autobiographical work, whatever we want to call this thing - you have to come at it at the right moment, so I'm certainly not foisting it upon them.”

Thinking Want Children Moments Reading Father Havens Winter Memoir My Children Intimate Good Times Journal Right Moment

Author:Paul Auster

“My wife is my first reader, my first line of defence I suppose. So she says, "Oh well, oh yes, it's all true." At the same time, I could have written much more about us, but I didn't want to go any further. I did cut things out. There are certain things that I wrote about her that are so gushing with praise and admiration that when I looked at those passages I realised they would be ridiculous to anybody else.”

Want Firsts Wells Would Be Certain Lines Cutting Wife Written Reader Praise My Wife Ridiculous Admiration Passages Defence Realised Oh Well

Author:Paul Auster

“The fiction is not autobiographical. Maybe to some extent it is, of course.”

Courses Fiction

Author:Paul Auster

“I feel now, in my impending old age, very lucky. I just can't tell you how lucky I feel, that I've managed to first of all, stay alive this long, in reasonably good health, and that I've been able to do what I want to do.”

Want Feels Firsts Long Age Able Alive Lucky Old Age Good Health Staying Alive

Author:Paul Auster

“This is very rare for anyone in life to pursue something and that thing being the thing you actually most want to do. It's all about the inner, rather than the outer. Whether people like or don't like my work, read it or don't read it, it's just been a gift from the gods that I've been able to sit at my desk for the last almost 50 years and do the things I've wanted to do.”

People Want Years Able Wanted Lasts Pursue Desks

Author:Paul Auster