Writing

“As a writer I just try to express an idea.”

“Literature begins with that “why,” even if we were to answer that question over and over with an ordinary “I don’t know.””

“I began writing in rather chauvinistic times. Luckily, now, things are very different.”

“Ma découverte interesse toutes les nations, et c’est pour toutes les nations que je veux faire et mon histoire et mon apologie.”

“When I’m writing novels, reality and unreality just naturally get mixed together.”

“When you're writing a story, it often feels less like you're doing architecture and more like you're doing excavation—we're just unearthing it.”

“When you sit with your pen, every year of your life is right there, wired into the communication between your brain and your writing hand.”

“Our reporting should speak for itself.”

“The most important thing is that I'm writing in Irish Gaelic.”

“In the case of history what matters is its meaning; its medium is events, and its vehicle is literature.”

“La precisión me interesa hasta la obsesión.”

“If you can paint with a brush, you can paint with words.”

“As for myself, I do not know anything except swimming. Your article on that subject is exactly right.”

“All poems are rash acts.”

“There is no question that I think of myself essentially as a playwright.”