Most writers battle with periods of being blocked; it's almost an occupational hazard. But in the writing of his last and greatest novel, 'A Passage to India,' E. M. Forster got stuck for nine years. Damon Galgut More Quotes by Damon Galgut More Quotes From Damon Galgut A journey is a gesture inscribed in space, it vanishes even as it's made. You go from one place to another place, and on to somewhere else again, and already behind you there is no trace that you were ever there. Damon Galgut space journey somewhere-else If I had done this, if I had said that, in the end you are always more tormented by what you didn't do than what you did, actions already performed can always be rationalized in time, the neglected deed might have changed the world. Damon Galgut deeds done world There's no theme, no moral to be learned, except for the knowledge that lightning can strike from a clear blue sky one morning and take away everything you've built, everything you've counted on, leaving wreckage and no meaning behind. It can happen to anyone, it can happen to you. Damon Galgut sky blue morning The only way you can be universal is to be sure you are very specifically local. Damon Galgut universal locals way In his clearest moments he thinks he has lost the ability to love, people or places or things, most of all the person and place and thing that he is. Without love nothing has value, nothing can be made to matter very much. Damon Galgut matter people thinking Things happen once only and are never repeated, never return. Except in memory. Damon Galgut return happens memories Poetry was syllable and rhythm. Poetry was the measurement of breath. Poetry was time make audible. Poetry evoked the present moment; poetry was the antidote to history. Poetry was language free from habit. Damon Galgut measurement language moments I long for a South African society that's free of ideological forces - no society can ever really be free of ideological forces - but I wish it was free of power. Damon Galgut society power wish long I think the impulse took shape in early childhood when I was very ill with lymphoma for a number of years. I spent a lot of time in hospitals and sick-rooms, being read to by various relatives, and I learned to associate books with love and attention. Damon Galgut think childhood time love I work by hand, with a fountain pen, in bound notebooks I buy in India. Damon Galgut pen fountain india work Writing is very good for household tasks. Because you'd rather fix a dripping tap or paint an old wall - you'd rather do almost anything than sit and write. I have to reach a point of obsession in order to write, and so I find starting a book incredibly difficult. Damon Galgut good you writing book Writing is not like acting, where you can pull these little stunts that create a particular effect. Words are all it is about, and the way you use words has to be individual and particular to you. Damon Galgut words you writing way While apartheid was in operation, the set-up was a gift for writers if you were looking for a big theme. Damon Galgut gift looking big you I'm fascinated by how much has changed from one generation to another. There are young people growing up now for whom apartheid is just a distant memory and the idea of military service is an abstract notion. Damon Galgut generation memory service people Literature at its fullest takes human nature as its theme. That's the kind of writing that interests me. Damon Galgut me nature literature writing Traveling is one of few zones of experience where you are not directly plugged into the world around you. You're not part of the society you're passing through. Damon Galgut you experience society world I should confess that I'm woefully under-read in South African fiction. Damon Galgut african confess should fiction Perhaps cliche is nothing more than the weight of the past pinning down your mind. In this sense, imaginative freedom is a way of finding the future, though it isn't so easy to do. Damon Galgut future freedom mind past I first went to India because of my interest in yoga, hoping to go to the Iyengar Centre in Pune for a while. That didn't work out, but I ended up on a beach in Goa, writing. Damon Galgut india work writing beach I've been wanting to write a book about what goes into creating a novel, and the story behind 'A Passage to India' is especially interesting. Damon Galgut behind story india book
