All the best essays are epistemological journeys from ignorance or curiosity to knowledge. Geoff Dyer More Quotes by Geoff Dyer More Quotes From Geoff Dyer I want to stress, this is the experience-growing up in a working-class family-that defined me and continues to define me. It's the core of my being. And it explains, incidentally, a good deal about my love of America. Geoff Dyer growing-up stress class Nine times out of 10, the most charming thing to say in any given situation will be the exact opposite of what one really feels. Geoff Dyer charming nine opposites One's happiness is very largely a question of state of mind rather than the world you are looking at. Geoff Dyer states mind world For so long I didn't have any kind of readership at all - I'd get published, but not read - the idea of writing for an audience is so anathema to me, it's never bothered me. Geoff Dyer kind writing long The perfect life, the perfect lie, I realised after Christmas, is one which prevents you from doing that which you would ideally have done (painted, say, or written unpublishable poetry) but which, in fact, you have no wish to do. People need to feel that they have been thwarted by circumstances from pursuing the life which, had they led it, they would not have wanted; whereas the life they really want is precisely a compound of all those thwarting circumstances. Geoff Dyer perfect lying people Life is bearable even when it's unbearable: that is what's so terrible, that is the unbearable thing about it. Geoff Dyer unbearable terrible life-is To be interested in something is to be involved in what is essentially a stressful relationship with that thing, to suffer anxiety on its behalf. Geoff Dyer stressful anxiety suffering I would hope that nothing that I write would ever seem earnest because I subscribe absolutely to Franz Nietzsche's claim when he says, "Ah, earnestness, the sure sign of a slow mind." Earnest people are always a bit on the thick side in my experience. Geoff Dyer mind writing people The ideal is to feel at home anywhere, everywhere. Geoff Dyer home feels travel If you help them (the crew) create good memories, they'll forget all the bad stuff Geoff Dyer stuff helping memories The thing that strikes me, from looking at the names so far in the Donald Trump's Cabinet on the foreign policy side, is the one thing that unites them - and that's General James Mattis at the Pentagon, Mike Pompeo at the CIA, even Mitt Romney to become secretary of state - they're all very, very hawkish on Iran. Geoff Dyer foreign-policy cia policy Beware of clichés. Not just the clichés that Martin Amis is at war with. There are clichés of response as well as expression. There are clichés of observation and of thought - even of conception. Many novels, even quite a few adequately written ones, are clichés of form which conform to clichés of expectation. Geoff Dyer expression writing war Have regrets. They are fuel. On the page they flare into desire. Geoff Dyer regret desire writing One of the reasons so many nonfiction books are so boring is because what they've done, very diligently, is fulfill the terms of their proposals. They've written up their proposal, long-form, and often what this does is then set up a sort of serial deal, where the whole book can essentially be reduced back to the size of the original proposal! Geoff Dyer doe long book If Donald Trump thinks that just by being unpredictable that somehow he can have an impact, but not necessarily commit himself to certain things, that's not the way it is going to be read in foreign capitals. Foreign governments are going to take these things very literally and very directly. Geoff Dyer commit unpredictable thinking What I'm really interested in, as a reader and as a writer, is the idea of the nonfiction book that is not defined by its content, by its "about"-ness. Where you read it irrespective of whether you're interested in the subject. Geoff Dyer nonfiction book ideas Have more than one idea on the go at any one time. If it's a choice between writing a book and doing nothing I will always choose the latter. It's only if I have an idea for two books that I choose one rather than the other. I always have to feel that I'm bunking off from something. Geoff Dyer writing book ideas He [Thelonious Monk] played each note as though astonished by the previous one, as though every touch of his fingers on the keyboard was correcting an error and this touch in turn became an error to be corrected and so the tune never quite ended up the way it was meant to. Geoff Dyer never-quit errors tunes Mike Pence came out and said this was a courtesy call, then Donald Trump a few hours later went on Twitter, as is his wont, and essentially linked the call to Taiwan with a whole series of things he doesn't like about Chinese economic and foreign policies and implied that the U.S. views of the status of Taiwan are now up for negotiation, that he wants them to be part of a broader negotiation with China about a whole series of economic and foreign policy issues. So, we just don't really know what exactly they're planing to do with this. Geoff Dyer economic chinese hours When you are lonely, writing can keep you company. It is also a form of self-compensation, a way of making up for things—as opposed to making things up—that did not quite happen. Geoff Dyer lonely self writing
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