An autobiography can distort; facts can be realigned. But fiction never lies: it reveals the writer totally. V. S. Naipaul More Quotes by V. S. Naipaul More Quotes From V. S. Naipaul The world is what it is; men who are nothing, who allow themselves to become nothing, have no place in it. V. S. Naipaul men world One isn’t born one’s self. One is born with a mass of expectations, a mass of other people’s ideas – and you have to work through it all. V. S. Naipaul self people ideas Most people are not really free. They are confined by the niche in the world that they carve out for themselves. They limit themselves to fewer possibilities by the narrowness of their vision. V. S. Naipaul vision people world The only lies for which we are truly punished are those we tell ourselves. V. S. Naipaul lying It is wrong to have an ideal view of the world. That's where the mischief starts. That's where everything starts unravelling. V. S. Naipaul mischief views world My life is short. I can't listen to banality. V. S. Naipaul banality life-is-short life-is The world is always in movement. V. S. Naipaul movement world Home is, I suppose just a child's idea. A house at night, and a lamp in the house. A place to feel safe. V. S. Naipaul home night children I think when you see so many Hindu temples of the 10th century or earlier disfigured, defaced, you realise that something terrible happened. I feel the civilisation of that closed world was mortally wounded by those invasions the old world is destroyed. That has to be understood. Ancient Hindu India was destroyed. V. S. Naipaul india world thinking After all, we make ourselves according to the ideas we have of our possibilities. V. S. Naipaul possibility ideas One always writes comedy at the moment of deepest hysteria. V. S. Naipaul hysteria comedy writing If a writer doesn't generate hostility, he is dead. V. S. Naipaul hostility ifs People come and go all the time; the world has always been in movement. V. S. Naipaul movement people world I will say I am the sum of my books. V. S. Naipaul book 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 pieces writing two The Europeans wanted gold and slaves, like everybody else; but at the same time they wanted statues put up to themselves as people who had done good things for the slaves. V. S. Naipaul done gold people Making a book is such a big enterprise. V. S. Naipaul enterprise bigs book 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 masters writing The melancholy thing about the world is that it is full of stupid people; and the world is run for the benefit of the stupid and common. V. S. Naipaul stupid running people And it was strange, I thought, that sorrow lasts and can make a man look forward to death, but the mood of victory fills a moment and then is over V. S. Naipaul victory sorrow men
