I still think it's really quite wonderful when I read a sentence of mine and it has that quality of lastingness. V. S. Naipaul More Quotes by V. S. Naipaul More Quotes From V. S. Naipaul Some writers can only deal with childhood experience, because it's complete. For another kind of writer, life goes on, and he's able to keep processing that as well. V. S. Naipaul childhoodablegoes-on 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 intuitionwritingideas The writer is all alone. V. S. Naipaul all-alone The past has to be seen to be dead; or the past will kill. V. S. Naipaul past To this day, if you ask me how I became a writer, I cannot give you an answer. To this day, if you ask me how a book is written, I cannot answer. For long periods, if I didn't know that somehow in the past I had written a book, I would have given up. V. S. Naipaul longbookpast There are two ways of talking. One is the easy way, where you talk lightly, and the other one is the considered way. The considered way is what I have put my name to. V. S. Naipaul namestalkingtwo It is important not to trust people too much. V. S. Naipaul too-muchimportantpeople In England I am not English, in India I am not Indian. I am chained to the 1,000 square miles that is Trinidad; but I will evade that fate yet. V. S. Naipaul fateindiasquares Judgment is contained in the act of trying to understand. V. S. Naipaul judgmenttrying Many writers tend to write summing-up books at the end of their lives. V. S. Naipaul endswritingbook The ancillary aspect of every British city now is the council estate. V. S. Naipaul estatesbritishcities In England people are very proud of being very stupid. V. S. Naipaul proudstupidpeople It was a good place for getting lost in, a city no one ever knew, a city explored from the neutral heart outward, until after many years, it defined itself into a jumble of clearings separated by stretches of the unknown, through which the narrowest of paths had been cut. V. S. Naipaul cuttingheartyears His ignorance seemed to widen with everything he read. V. S. Naipaul ignorance The family feuds or the village feuds often had to do with an idea of honor. Perhaps it was a peasant idea; perhaps this idea of honor is especially important to a society without recourse to law or without confidence in law. V. S. Naipaul honorlawideas To read a newspaper for the first time is like coming into a film that has been on for an hour. Newspapers are like serials. To understand them you have to take knowledge to them; the knowledge that serves best is the knowledge provided by the newspaper itself. V. S. Naipaul hoursfilmfirsts 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 documentationdetailswriting A civilization which has taken over the world cannot be said to be dying. V. S. Naipaul dyingtakencivilization It isn't that there's no right and wrong here. There's no right. V. S. Naipaul I've been a free man. V. S. Naipaul free-manmen
