When I was a young boy, I lived very close to the forest ... many years later, I moved back to the forest and it was a whole new thing, i immediately started writing this book. Per Petterson More Quotes by Per Petterson More Quotes From Per Petterson I remember a lot of dreams. Sometimes they are hard to distinguish from what has really happened. That is not so terrible. It is the same with books. Per Petterson dreamrememberbook I rely heavily on rhythm when I write. You should tap your foot when you read it, all the way through. Per Petterson feetwritingway If I just concentrate I can walk into memory's store and find the right shelf with the right film and disappear into it. Per Petterson disappearfilmmemories One of my many horrors is to become the man with the frayed jacket and unfastened flies standing at the Co-op counter with egg on his shirt and more too because the mirror in the hall has given up the ghost. A shipwrecked man without an anchor in the world except in his own liquid thoughts where time has lost its sequence. Per Petterson anchorseggsmen In a household tragedy, you are very much aware of being alone. It is something that is possible to grasp, and that is why it hurts so much. Because you are alone. I know a little about this. Per Petterson tragedyhurtlittles A lot can change because you are embarrassed by something. Per Petterson embarrassed I worked in a bookstore in Oslo, importing the English-language books. Per Petterson oslolanguagebook I write about families. That is who we are. Per Petterson about-familywho-we-arewriting ...when it came to dying, I was scared. Not of being dead, that I could not comprehend, to be nothing was impossible to grasp and therefore really nothing to be scared of, but the dying itself I could comprehend, the very instant when you know that now comes what you have always feared, and you suddenly realise that every chance of being the person you really wanted to be, is gone for ever, and the one you were, is the one those around you will remember. Per Petterson dyinggoneimpossible But that's life. That's what you learn from; when things happen. Especially at your age. You just have to take it in and remember to think afterwards and not forget and never grow bitter. Per Petterson bitteragethinking You decide for yourself when it will hurt. Per Petterson optimistichurt Time is important to me now, I tell myself.Not that it should pass quickly or slowly, but only be time, be something I live inside and fill with physical things and activities that I can divide it up by. so that it grows distict to me and does not vanish when I am not looking. Per Petterson importantshoulddoe A dead dog is more quiet than a house on the steppes, a chair in a empty room. Per Petterson empty-roomsdoghouse I was born in 1952, so obviously the sixties were important. That's when I came of age. It was also a revolutionary period, a complete break with the generation before us in terms of culture, literature, music, and in politics, of course. 1968 was an important year; I was 16, and the world became clear to me, visible, so to say. Per Petterson memusicpoliticsage When a translation is very good, it is fascinating to see how the book changes and yet stays the same. I think 'Out Stealing Horses' sounds more American for Americans than it does in Norway, and still, it is all there, everything that I wrote. It's amazing. Per Petterson amazinggoodthinkbook I decided if I couldn't be a writer, my life would be miserable. I had this imaginary room of references to all the books I had read, a kind of bubble, in which I lived. Per Petterson roommy-lifebubblelife At first I wanted to go to university, but I really didn't dare to. I was too self-conscious, being a working-class kid. It was really difficult. I was going to study history, but the professor asked me some questions I didn't understand, and I didn't dare to ask what they meant. I left university and went to work in the Post. Per Petterson understandmeworkhistory To me, a book is a book. A novel is a novel, and you have hundreds of possibilities, options, and they may all be fine. Charles Dickens or Ingeborg Bachmann, Claude Simon or later writers. The one and only condition is that it has to be good: it has to have quality, substance, atmosphere. Per Petterson goodmeyouquality The important discovery I made very early is that my novels had to be written without any given plan or outline. I can't do it in any other way. But then they are dependent on the sentences, my intuition, and, as I have experienced many times, the subconscious. Per Petterson planimportantdiscoveryway I grew up in the city. Both my mother and father were factory workers, and I loved the life in the 'metro.' Everybody saw me as a very urban guy. And I was. Per Petterson memotherlifefather
