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.
V.S. NAIPAULIf ever you wish to meet intellectual frauds in quantity, go to Paris.
More V.S. Naipaul Quotes
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All the things that were read to me by my father were stories about things becoming all right.
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But everything of value about me is in my books.
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Some writers can only deal with childhood experience, because it’s complete. For another kind of writer, life goes on, and he’s able to keep processing that as well.
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I’m my own writer. My material means I’m entirely separate.
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And it was strange, I thought, that sorrow lasts and can make a man look forward to death, but the mood of victory fills a moment and then is over.
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In a way my reputation has become that of the curmudgeon.
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Men need history; it helps them to have an idea of who they are. But history, like sanctity, can reside in the heart; it is enough that there is something there.
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An autobiography can distort; facts can be realigned. But fiction never lies: it reveals the writer totally.
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I still think it’s really quite wonderful when I read a sentence of mine and it has that quality of lastingness.
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The world is always in movement.
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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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A civilization which has taken over the world cannot be said to be dying.
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Small things start us in new ways of thinking.
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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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Writing has to support itself.
V.S. NAIPAUL