V. S. Naipaul Quotes About Writing

Quotes about: Writing

• I read a piece of writing and within a paragraph or two I know whether it is by a woman or not.

  V. S. Naipaul

  Writing, Two, Pieces

  "VS Naipaul finds no woman writer his literary match – not even Jane Austen" by Amy Fallon, www.theguardian.com. June 2, 2011.

• One always writes comedy at the moment of deepest hysteria.

  V. S. Naipaul

  Writing, Hysteria, Comedy

  "V.S. Naipaul in Search of Himself: A Conversation". Interview with Mel Gussow, The New York Times, April 24, 1994.

• 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.

  V. S. Naipaul

  Writing, Judging, Looks

  V. S. Naipaul (2012). “Literary Occasions: Essays”, p.188, Pan Macmillan

• My grief is that the publishing world, the book writing world is an extraordinary shoddy, dirty, dingy world.

  V. S. Naipaul

  Grief, Dirty, Book

• If writers just sit and talk about oppression, they are not going to do much writing.

  V. S. Naipaul

  Writing, Oppression, Ifs

• Great writing can be done in biography, history, art.

  V. S. Naipaul

  Art, Writing, Done

  "A singular writer". Interview with Maya Jaggi, www.theguardian.com. September 7, 2001.

• Whatever extra there is in me at any given moment isn't fully formed. I am hardly aware of it; it awaits the next book. It will - with luck - come to me during the actual writing, and it will take me by surprise

  V. S. Naipaul

  Book, Writing, Luck

  V. S. Naipaul (2012). “Literary Occasions: Essays”, p.188, Pan Macmillan

• Many writers tend to write summing-up books at the end of their lives.

  V. S. Naipaul

  Book, Writing, Ends

• If you write a novel alone you sit and you weave a little narrative. And it's O.K., but it's of no account.

  V. S. Naipaul

  Writing, Littles, Narrative

• Writing has to support itself.

  V. S. Naipaul

  Writing, Support

• I wish my prose to be transparent—I don't want the reader to stumble over me; I want him to look through what I'm saying to what I'm describing. I don't want him ever to say, Oh, goodness, how nicely written this is. That would be a failure.

  V. S. Naipaul

  Writing, Wish, Want Him

• When I learnt to write I became my own master, I became very strong, and that strength is with me to this very day.

  V. S. Naipaul

  Strong, Writing, Masters

• Whenever I have had to write fiction, I've always had to invent a character who roughly has my background.

  V. S. Naipaul

  Writing, Character, Fiction

• 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.

  V. S. Naipaul

  Writing, Ideas, Intuition

  V. S. Naipaul (2012). “Literary Occasions: Essays”, p.189, Pan Macmillan

• All the details of the life and the quirks and the friendships can be laid out for us, but the mystery of the writing will remain. No amount of documentation, however fascinating, can take us there.

  V. S. Naipaul

  Writing, Details, Documentation

  V. S. Naipaul (2012). “Literary Occasions: Essays”, p.189, Pan Macmillan

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