I use things, I steal things from my life when I want to, when I need to, or when it seems appropriate. But most of the stuff in my novels is entirely invented, ninety-five percent. And even when I do borrow something, it becomes fictionalized. Paul Auster More Quotes by Paul Auster More Quotes From Paul Auster You see, the interesting thing about books, as opposed, say, to films, is that it's always just one person encountering the book, it's not an audience, it's one to one. Paul Auster film book interesting You have to protect it too, you can't let just any stupid person take it and do something demoralizing with it. At the same time, I don't believe in being so rigid about controlling what happens either. Paul Auster protect stupid believe What used to keep me up at night was the fact that I didn't know how I was going to pay the rent. Now that I can pay the rent, I'm worrying about people I care about, you know, the people I love. The little aches and pains of my children that I, my family. That's always first. Paul Auster pain night children What better portrait of a writer than to show a man who has been bewitched by books? Paul Auster portraits men book No one can cross the boundary into another -- for the simple reason that no one can gain access to himself Paul Auster opaque gains simple It's extremely difficult to get these jobs because you can't get a job on a ship unless you have seaman's paper's, and you can't get seaman's papers unless you have a job on a ship. There had to be a way to break through the circle, and he was the one who arranged it for me. Paul Auster break-through circles jobs All I wanted to do was write - at the time, poems, and prose, too. I guess my ambition was simply to make money however I could to keep myself going in some modest way, and I didn't need much, I was unmarried at the time, no children. Paul Auster ambition writing children Eighteen is a terrible age, and while I walked around with the conviction that I was somehow more grown-up than my classmates, the truth was that I had merely found a different way of being young. Paul Auster different age way and now we get to the hard part. the endings, the farewells, and the famous last words. if you don't hear from me often, remember that you're in my thoughts. Paul Auster lasts farewell remember Wounds are an essential part of life, and until you are wounded in some way, you cannot become a man. Paul Auster essentials men way No one wants to be part of a fiction, and even less so if that fiction is real. Paul Auster real want fiction Every novel is an equal collaboration between the writer and the reader and it is the only place in the world where two strangers can meet on terms of absolute intimacy. Paul Auster collaboration writing two When I write, the story is always uppermost in my mind, and I feel that everything must be sacrificed to it. All elegant passages, all the curious details, all the so-called beautiful writing - if they are not truly relevant to what I am trying to say, then they have to go. Paul Auster mind writing beautiful You find the book in the process of doing it. That's the adventure of the job. Paul Auster adventure jobs book Becoming a writer is not a 'career decision' like becoming a doctor or a policeman. You don't choose it so much as get chosen, and once you accept the fact that you're not fit for anything else, you have to be prepared to walk a long, hard road for the rest of your days. Paul Auster doctors careers long In the end, the art of hunger can be described as an existential art. It is a way of looking death in the face, and by death I mean death as we live it today: without God, without hope of salvation. Death as the abrupt and absurd end of life Paul Auster today mean art To feel estranged from language is to lose your own body. Paul Auster language body feels Existence was bigger than just life. It was everyone's life all together, and even if you lived in Buffalo, New York and had never been more than ten miles from home, you were part of the puzzle, too. It didn't matter how small your life was. Paul Auster new-york together home When a person is lucky enough to live inside a story, to live inside an imaginary world, the pains of this world disappear. For as long as the story goes on, reality no longer exists. Paul Auster pain life reality Something happens, Blue thinks, and then it goes on happening forever. It can never be changed, can never be otherwise. Paul Auster forever blue thinking
