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Quote by Will Self

“Without a shadow of doubt, Trafalgar Square has to be one of the most crap urban public spaces in the world.”

Quote by Will Self

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. more

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“In survey after survey, people report that the greatest dangers they face are, in this order: terrorist attack, plane crashes and nuclear accidents. This despite the fact that these three combined have killed fewer people in the past half-century than car accidents do in any given year.”

“The whole aesthetics of computers very much feeds into my OCD. They fill my head with obsessionalities and my actions become very repetitive. It seems quite inimical to the dreamy state out of which fiction comes which seems so much less causally repetitive than the way one works on computers.”

Way States Whole Seems Action Fiction Computer Aesthetics Repetitive Dreamy Ocd

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

“Always carry a notebook. And I mean always. The short-term memory only retains information for three minutes; unless it is committed to paper you can lose an idea for ever.”

Writing Mean Ideas Three Term Loses Memories Minutes Information Paper Committed Short Term Notebook Short Term Memory

Author:Will Self

“As for critical writing about modernism, its moments of lucidity are but fulgurations illuminating the dark and incomprehensible landscape of its subject's unabashed difficulty.”

Writing Moments Dark Subjects Difficulty Critical Landscape Modernism Illuminating Lucidity

Author:Will Self

“Continuous present is all we have, and stream of consciousness - which in a novel is arguably just as artificial as the stilted dialogue that you get in most conventional novels. They're all stratagems to try to get closer to the texture of lived life.”

Trying Consciousness Novel Dialogue Streams Artificial Conventional Texture Stratagem Stream Of Consciousness

Author:Will Self

“For myself, I haven't been content to carry on producing books that merely strain against the conventions - as I've grown older, and realised that there aren't that many books left for me to write, so I've become determined that they should be the fictive equivalent of ripping the damn corset off altogether and chucking it on the fire.”

Should Writing Book Left Fire Havens Determined Damn Conventions Strain Realised Corsets

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

“Freedom would be not to choose between black and white but to abjure such prescribed choices.”

Would Be Choices Black White Black And White Uncommitted

Book:Minima Moralia: Reflections on a Damaged Life

Source: Minima Moralia: Reflections on a Damaged Life

“I always wanted to write fiction. Always. As far back as I can remember it's been integral to my sense of myself - everything else was always a displacement activity.”

Writing I Can Wanted Remember Fiction Activity Displacement

Author:Will Self