On winning Literature Nobel Prize: I was actually in the street. Yes, I was in the street. It was my daughter who notified me. Patrick Modiano More Quotes by Patrick Modiano More Quotes From Patrick Modiano But I am a patient man. I can wait for hours in the rain Patrick Modiano waiting rain men The doctor used to tell me that every person about to die becomes a music box playing the melody that best describes his life, his character, and his hopes. For some, it's a popular waltz; for others, a march. Patrick Modiano march doctors character A man without scenery is completely disarmed. Patrick Modiano scenery climbing men When you really love someone, you must accept their part of mystery. And that’s why you love them. Patrick Modiano love-someone mystery accepting For a long time - and this particular time with greater force than usual - summer has been a season that gives me a sense of emptiness and absence, and takes me back to the past. Patrick Modiano summer long past Nice is a city of ghosts and specters, but I hope not to become one of them right away. Patrick Modiano nice cities ghost My wife's a lot younger than me ... thirty years difference . . . You should never marry a woman a lot younger than you ... Never. Patrick Modiano differences wife years I just have two daughters and a grandson. So not a big family. Patrick Modiano daughter mother two As a writer, one is always a little blind to what one writes. Patrick Modiano writer little always blind Writing is a strange and solitary activity. There are dispiriting times when you start working on the first few pages of a novel. Every day, you have the feeling you are on the wrong track. This creates a strong urge to go back and follow a different path. It is important not to give in to this urge but to keep going. Patrick Modiano day you keep-going path A novelist's lack of awareness of and critical distance to his own body of work is due to a phenomenon that I have noticed in myself and many others: as soon as it is written, every new book erases the last one, leaving me with the impression that I have forgotten it. Patrick Modiano myself me work book I've always had the wish, the nostalgia to be able to write detective novels. At heart, the principal themes of detective novels are close to the things that obsess me: disappearance, the problems of identity, amnesia, the return to an enigmatic past. Patrick Modiano problems me heart past I think I became a writer because I didn't know of anything else to do. Maybe some incident from my childhood influenced me. Patrick Modiano think know me childhood I quickly realised that it is difficult to get started when writing a novel. You have this dream of what you want to create, but it is like walking around a swimming pool and hesitating to jump in because the water is too cold. Patrick Modiano you swimming walking water When I was younger, I just put off the writing until later in the day, but now I write early every morning to get it done. I can only write for a few hours at a time; after that, my attention fades. Patrick Modiano day time morning attention Encourage aspiring writers to continue writing when things are going against them, when it feels hard. Explain the typical obstacles that occur, and encourage and reassure them to continue, never to give up. Patrick Modiano never things obstacles writing Recently, I looked back at my first manuscripts and was struck by the lack of space, of breath. That's exactly how it felt, back then... like I was suffocating. Patrick Modiano how back like space For a long time, I've had a recurring dream - I dream I don't have to write any more, that I'm free. I'm not free, alas; I'm still clearing the same terrain, with the impression that it's never finished. Patrick Modiano never long-time time long I always have the impression that I write the same book. Patrick Modiano write always impression book I write in the most classical French because this form is necessary for my novels: to translate the murky, floating, unsettling atmosphere I wanted them to have, I had to discipline it into the clearest, most traditional language possible. Patrick Modiano possible floating discipline language
