“I have difficulty orienting myself in space, and I'm probably one of the few people who gets lost in Manhattan.” PeopleLostSpaceDifficultyManhattan Author:Paul Auster
“There is a double rhythm in all human beings. We are binary beings - two arms, two legs, two eyes, two ears. Two legs for walking. And the heartbeat thumping in our chest mirrors that.” HumansHeartTwoEyeHuman BeingsArmsWalkingEarsMirrorsLegsRhythmChestsHeartbeatBinary Author:Paul Auster
“Even when I'm just sitting at my desk, I have to get up every twenty minutes or so and walk around, walk around, walk around, and then I can go back to the page. I can't just sit there for hours at a time. Language comes out of the body as much as the mind.” MindI CanBodyLanguageHoursWalksMinutesPagesSittingTwentiesGet UpDesks Author:Paul Auster
“Reading, at the deepest level, is a physical experience. Most people are not attuned to this, most people don't learn how to read - poetry for example, or high-quality prose. They're used to reading magazines and newspapers, which are only of the mind, but not of the body.” PeopleMindBodyUsedReadingLevelsQualityExampleNewspapersMagazinesProseHigh QualityReading Magazines Author:Paul Auster
“Take a report. It's dry, the sentences are clunky and unfelicitous, they're just conveying information. But it seems to me that if you're fully engaged in a great piece of literature, once you enter the rhythms of the language, which is a kind of music, meanings are being conveyed that you're not fully aware of. They enter into your subconscious.” IfsKindSeemsLiteratureLanguagePiecesInformationSentencesRhythmEngagedDryReportsSubconsciousConveying 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
“I never would have thought of that word, "hospitality." I settle into the rhythm of my steps.” StepsRhythmSettlingHospitality Author:Paul Auster
“I don't like that word [memoir]. Whenever my publishers have wanted to use it, I've told them to take it away.” UseWantedMemoirPublishers Author:Paul Auster
“Autobiographical writings, essays, interviews, various other things... All the non-fiction prose I wanted to keep, that was the idea behind this collected volume, which came out about few years ago. I didn't think of Winter Journal, for example, as an autobiography, or a memoir. What it is is a literary work, composed of autobiographical fragments, but trying to attain, I hope, the effect of music.” ThinkingWritingTryingYearsIdeasWantedBehindsFictionEffectsExampleYears AgoWinterVariousMemoirInterviewsProseVolumeJournalAutobiographyEssaysFragmentsNon FictionLiterary WorksWriting Essays Author:Paul Auster