The only lies for which we are truly punished are those we tell ourselves.
V.S. NAIPAULI read a piece of writing and within a paragraph or two I know whether it is by a woman or not.
More V.S. Naipaul Quotes
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The reason is that they define how I have gone about my business. I have trusted to intuition. I did it at the beginning. I do it even now. I have no idea how things might turn out, where in my writing I might go next.
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That element of surprise is what I look for when I am writing. It is my way of judging what I am doing – which is never an easy thing to do.
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There are two ways of talking. One is the easy way, where you talk lightly, and the other one is the considered way. The considered way is what I have put my name to.
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Making a book is such a big enterprise.
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Judgment is contained in the act of trying to understand.
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Life is a helluva thing. You can see trouble coming and you can’t do a damn thing to prevent it coming. You just got to sit and watch and wait.
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If ever you wish to meet intellectual frauds in quantity, go to Paris.
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As a child I knew almost nothing, nothing beyond what I had picked up in my grandmother’s house. All children, I suppose, come into the world like that, not knowing who they are.
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Writers should provoke disagreement.
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I could meet dreadful people and end up seeing the world through their eyes, seeing their frailties, their needs.
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After all, we make ourselves according to the ideas we have of our possibilities.
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This is unusual for me. I have given readings and not lectures. I have told people who ask for lectures that I have no lecture to give. And that is true.
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The writer is all alone.
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I don’t feel I can speak with authority for many other people.
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My life is short. I can’t listen to banality.
V.S. NAIPAUL