Top 91 Quotes by V. S. Naipaul

About V. S. Naipaul

These are some quotes by Trinidadian author V. S. Naipaul Novelist, who was born on August 17, 1932.

I went to India and met some people who had been involved in this guerrilla business, middle-class people who were rather vain and foolish. There was no revolutionary grandeur to it. Nothing.

I went to India and met some people who had been involved in this guerrilla business, middle-class people who were rather vain and foolish. There was no revolutionary grandeur to it. Nothing.

V. S. Naipaul

I could meet dreadful people and end up seeing the world through their eyes, seeing their frailties, their needs.

I could meet dreadful people and end up seeing the world through their eyes, seeing their frailties, their needs.

V. S. Naipaul

To be converted you have to destroy your past, destroy your history. You have to stamp on it, you have to say 'my ancestral culture does not exist, it doesn't matter.'

To be converted you have to destroy your past, destroy your history. You have to stamp on it, you have to say 'my ancestral culture does not exist, it doesn't matter.'

V. S. Naipaul

My publisher, who was so good as a taster and editor, when she became a writer, lo and behold, it was all this feminine tosh.

My publisher, who was so good as a taster and editor, when she became a writer, lo and behold, it was all this feminine tosh.

V. S. Naipaul

That element of surprise is what I look for when I am writing. It is my way of judging what I am doing - which is never an easy thing to do.

That element of surprise is what I look for when I am writing. It is my way of judging what I am doing - which is never an easy thing to do.

V. S. Naipaul

In England I am not English, in India I am not Indian. I am chained to the 1,000 square miles that is Trinidad; but I will evade that fate yet.

In England I am not English, in India I am not Indian. I am chained to the 1,000 square miles that is Trinidad; but I will evade that fate yet.

V. S. Naipaul

I still think it's really quite wonderful when I read a sentence of mine and it has that quality of lastingness.

I still think it's really quite wonderful when I read a sentence of mine and it has that quality of lastingness.

V. S. Naipaul

You need someone to see what you've done, to read it and to understand it and to appreciate what's gone into it.

You need someone to see what you've done, to read it and to understand it and to appreciate what's gone into it.

V. S. Naipaul

One is made by all the things around one. There are many things that have made one. For a writer to go around looking for things that have made him is asking for trouble. It's like giving a character to yourself. Can't do it. Can't do it. These things are just there. Is that enough?

V. S. Naipaul

To be a writer you have to be out in the world, you have to risk yourself in the world, you have to be immersed in the world, you have to go out looking for it. This becomes harder as you get older because there's less energy, the days are shorter for older people and it's not so easy to go out and immerse oneself in the world outside.

V. S. Naipaul

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