It was only when I found myself writing things I didn't realise I knew that I said, 'I'm a writer now.' Don DeLillo More Quotes by Don DeLillo More Quotes From Don DeLillo I don't consider myself paranoid at all. I think I see things exactly as they are. Don DeLillo paranoid thinking In my experience, writing a novel tends to create its own structure, its own demands, its own language, its own ending. Don DeLillo demand language writing A novel determines its own size and shape and I've never tried to stretch an idea beyond the frame and structure it seemed to require. Don DeLillo size shapes ideas The world is shrinking into a kind of technological funnel. I think people are drawn into their technological devices, and this becomes a kind of subjective universe, into which much of the rest of the world simply does not enter. Don DeLillo doe people thinking I do think that in the near future, if it hasn't happened already, people will be able to use technology to design their own novels, perhaps with individuals themselves as the main character. In other words, everything is being individualized and narrowed. Don DeLillo technology character thinking I would never write in response to what I believe the public wanted or needed. Don DeLillo needed writing believe We don't really know how technology will affect narrative. That's the question. See, people used to say that the novel is going to die, but they would never say that movies will die with it, when in fact all forms depend on the narrative. I think if one of them fails, the others are going to fail as well. Maybe this will happen to both forms, and maybe movies will take a totally different direction with fiction. Don DeLillo technology people thinking Writers, some of us, may tend to see things before other people do, things that are right there but aren't noticed in the way that a writer might notice. Don DeLillo may might people Certainly I've never tried to imagine what the future will hold. It's a hopeless endeavor to try to do such a thing. Don DeLillo hopeless imagine trying We live in an age of rapid mass media, television, Internet. They determine our tempo, not books. Don DeLillo media age book Making things difficult for the reader is less an attack on the reader than it is on the age and its facile knowledge-market. Don DeLillo difficult reader age I am very unmusical. I can't carry a tune. I would never be able to play an instrument. Don DeLillo able tunes play My attitudes aren't directed toward characters at all. I don't feel sympathetic toward some characters, unsympathetic toward others. I don't love some characters, feel contempt for others. They have attitudes; I don't. Don DeLillo sympathetic attitude character I've always felt that my subject was living in dangerous times. Don DeLillo dangerous subjects felt There is a set of balances and rhythms to a novel that we can't experience in real life. So I think there is a sense in which fiction can rescue history from confusion. Don DeLillo confusion real thinking The music I like best is kind of frozen in my mind from the Sixties and Seventies. I still listen to the same jazz music I listened to when I was eighteen years old, and like and admire it just as much. Don DeLillo frozen mind years Not long ago, a novelist could believe he could have an effect on our consciousness of terror. Today, the men who shape and inflence human consciousness are the terrorists. Don DeLillo long-ago men believe The difference between the world of pictures and the world of printed matter is extraordinary and hard to define. A picture is like the masses: a multitude of impressions. A book on the other hand, with its linear advance of words and characters seems to be connected to individual identity. Don DeLillo character book hands That's what in theory differentiates a writer from everyone else. You see and hear more clearly. Don DeLillo differentiate theory If an idea seems to find its way towards a stage setting, that's the direction I take. I don't know if I'm trying to achieve anything other than to follow an idea on to the page. Don DeLillo pages trying ideas
