One thing I knew about the novelist’s task: when in doubt, write; when empty, write; when afraid, write. … - Philip Sington

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The central conservative truth is that it is culture, not politics, that determines the success of a society. The central liberal truth is that politics can change a culture and save it from itself.

Philip Sington

One thing I knew about the novelist’s task: when in doubt, write; when empty, write; when afraid, write. Nothing is more impenetrable than the blank page. The blank page is the void, the absence of sense and feeling, the white light of literary death.

Afraid, Light, Novelists, White, Write, Writing

Same Author Quotes

I have found that in fiction one is freer to speak the truth, if only because in fiction the truth is not expected or required. You may easily disguise it, so that it is only recognized much later, when the story and the characters have faded into darkness.

Character, Darkness, Fiction, Freer, Story, Truth

The future can always wait so long as the here-and-now is rapturous.

Here And Now, Long, Rapturous, Wait, Waiting

We drank our coffee the Russian way. That is to say we had vodka before it and vodka afterwards.

Coffee, Drank, Russian, Vodka, Way

All writers are insecure, the male ones especially. It's well known. Why else would they spend so much time on make-believe? They're only happy in their imaginary worlds, because that's where they're in charge - where they're God. Did you know that Hemingway's mother dressed him as a girl until he was six years old?" I was not offended by Claudia's glib psychological theory. Like many glib psychological theories, it struck me as fundamentally correct.

Believe, Girl, Mother, Six, Theory, Writers

And then they would watch her closely as the dark, coagulated masses took form before her eyes, became flesh and bone, became gradually human. For all their show of reluctance, she had a sense that they enjoyed introducing her to these horrors, as seducers took pleasure in the corruption of innocence.

Coagulated, Dark, Eye, Masses, Seducers, Watches