Memoirs have dominated the literary scene now for ten or 20 or even 30 years: most of them … - Paul Auster

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We seem to be afflicted by a widespread and eroding reluctance to take any stand on any values, moral, behavioral or esthetic.

Paul Auster

Memoirs have dominated the literary scene now for ten or 20 or even 30 years: most of them seem to use the conventions of fiction and it's astonishing how in so many of these books people seem to be able to remember conversations that took place when they were five years old and give three pages of coherent dialogue, which is utterly impossible.

Book, Dominated, Give, People, Took, Years

Same Author Quotes

I've been trying to fit everything in, trying to get to the end before it's too late, but I see now how badly I've deceived myself. Words do not allow such things. The closer you come to the end, the more there is to say. The end is only imaginary, a destination you invent to keep yourself going, but a point comes when you realize you will never get there. You might have to stop, but that is only because you have run out of time. You stop, but that does not mean you have come to an end.

Mean, Running, Say, Stop, Trying

The funny thing is that I feel close to all my characters. Deep, deep inside them all. I can't describe how deeply I love them all.

Character, Describe, Feels, Funny Things, Love, Thing

We exist for ourselves, perhaps, and at times we even have a glimmer of who we are, but in the end we can never be sure, and as our lives go on, we become more and more opaque to ourselves, more and more aware of our own incoherence. No one can cross the boundary into another – for the simple reason that no one can gain access to himself.

Become, Exist, Goes On, Opaque, Perhaps, Simple

The story is not in the words; it's in the struggle.

Stories, Story, Struggle, Words

When I start, I have a feeling for the characters, and maybe the shape of the story. Sometimes I might even have the last sentence in mind. But, no book I've ever written has ever ended the way I thought it would. Characters disappear, others come forward. Once you start writing, everything changes.

Book, Character, Disappear, Forward, Way, Writing