Stories–individual stories, family stories, national stories–are what stitch together the disparate elements of human existence into a coherent whole. We are story animals.
YANN MARTELJesus, Mary, Muhammad and Vishnu, how good to see you Richard Parker!
More Yann Martel Quotes
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It was as unbelievable as the moon catching fire.
YANN MARTEL -
I am not a particularly natural writer. I am not a person who can write in paragraphs the way some writers do. For me, it’s sentence by sentence, sometimes word-by-word. And I revise constantly. It’s a very laborious process, but I love doing it.
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Their faces go red, their chests heave mightily, they sputter angry words. The degree of their indignation is astonishing. Their resolve is frightening.
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Mockery be damned, my urine looked delicious.
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Life on a lifeboat isn’t much of a life.
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Christianity is a religion in a rush.
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As much as I love movies, it would be presumptuous of me to think that I know how to make one.
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I am reminded of a story of Lord Krishna when he was a cowherd. Every night he invites the milkmaids to dance with him in the forest. They come and they dance. The night is dark, the fire in their midst roars and crackles, the beat of the music gets ever faster.
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Just do it. Get it down on the page. Work hard. And then let go. Ask yourself why you want to write. You have to be clear about that.
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The world isn’t just the way it is. It is how we understand it, no? And in understanding something, we bring something to it, no? Doesn’t that make life a story?
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Any writer will be happy and good only if they know what they’re doing and why they’re doing it.
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People always seek to compare. They can take the new, but only if it is somehow connected to the familiar.
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I was not wounded in any part of my body, but I had never experienced such intense pain, such a ripping of the nerves, such an ache of the heart.
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We commonly say in the trade that the most dangerous animal in a zoo is Man.
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I have a fierce will to live. Others fight a little, then lose hope. Still others – and I am one of those – never give up. We fight and fight and fight.
YANN MARTEL