Home / Quotes / Quote by Paul Auster

Quote by Paul Auster

“In a sense I am able to interrogate myself, address myself from that slight distance and enter a kind of dialogical relationship with myself. Because I'm saying, "Look, these are things that have happened to me, but how odd they are or how ordinary they are [is up to the reader to decide]."”

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

“I don't read reviews any more, but I'm told by my publisher who gives me an account of what people have been writing and it's been a very split kind of response.”

People Giving Writing Kind Has Beens Accounts Give Me Response Reviews Splits Publishers

Author:Paul Auster

“I'd go nuts. Because people look at the same passage and one person will say this is the best thing he's ever read, and another person will say it's absolutely idiotic. I mean, there's no way to reconcile those two things. You just have to forget the whole business of what people are saying.”

People Way Looks Mean Persons Two Whole Forget Best Things Two Things Passages Nuts Reconcile Idiotic

Author:Paul Auster

“I'm in constant inner dialogue with my father still.”

Stills Father Constant Dialogue

Author:Paul Auster

“I say at the very end of "Winter Journal" that I do dream about my father often. I think I have a tremendous compassion for him, which has grown over the years. A certain kind of pity for him also in that he was so unrealised as a human being, so dogged, and so shut-off from people in many ways. You know, I've been writing another book, and it's another non-fiction autobiographical work, kind of a compliment to "Winter Journal", and it's just finished.”

People Thinking Knows Way Writing Years Humans Kind Book Ends Dream Certain Father Human Beings Fiction Compassion Winter Finished Pity Compliment Journal Non Fiction

Author:Paul Auster

“I was born just after the end of World War II, and with my friends in our little suburban backyards in New Jersey, we used to play war a lot. I don't know if boys still play war, they probably do, but we were thrusting ourselves into recent history and we were always fighting either the Nazis or the Japanese.”

Ifs Knows World Littles Stills War Ends Play Used Fighting Born Boys My Friends War Of The Worlds World War Ii World War I Nazi Jersey New Jersey Backyards Always Fighting

Author:Paul Auster

“Most of my friends' fathers had been in the war - either as soldiers or in some other capacity in the military. Whereas my father had not fought. He was older and he was in a business that was considered essential to the wartime effort - the wire business - and, of course, I was so young I didn't understand any of this.”

War Young Courses Father Effort Military Essentials My Friends Capacity Soldier Wire Wartime

Author:Paul Auster

“Most of the boys would come with bits of equipment that their fathers had given them from their war days - helmets, canteens, binoculars, these kinds of things - that leant a kind of authenticity to the games we were playing. But, of course, my father never gave me anything. So I began to question him. You know, Why don't you have anything from the war? And I think he was...embarrassed to tell me he hadn't fought, because, you know, little boys want to turn their fathers into heroes, and he didn't want to be diminished in my eyes.”

Thinking Knows Want Kind Littles War Eye Turns Courses Father Games Given Bits Boys Hero Authenticity Embarrassed Equipment Little Boys Helmet Binoculars Canteen

Author:Paul Auster

“A canteen I remember vividly, and maybe one other thing, I can't remember. And I knew then that he had bought them in an army surplus store that day and he wanted to maybe enhance himself in my eyes, and say, "Well, yes, I have been in the army." Or [he] simply just didn't want to disappoint me. It could have been one or the other. But I knew that he had lied to me. And this filled me with a tremendous sort of anger towards him. At the same time, knowing he was trying to please me, so feeling good about him.”

Want Trying Wells Has Beens I Can Feelings Eye Wanted Remember Knowing Please Army Filled Stores Feel Good Could Have Been Lied Disappoint Surplus Please Me Lied To Me Canteen

Author: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.”

Knows Feels Looks I Can Important Stories Seems Father Can Do Know How Pity Torn

Author:Paul Auster

“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