All the details of the life and the quirks and the friendships can be laid out for us, but the mystery of the writing will remain. No amount of documentation, however fascinating, can take us there. V. S. Naipaul amountdetaildocumentation Change image and share on social
I had no student friends to talk to about literature. My tutor was a really nice man, very charming - but he had no literary judgment. V. S. Naipaul charmfriendjudgment Change image and share on social
It was a good place for getting lost in, a city no one ever knew, a city explored from the neutral heart outward, until after many years, it defined itself into a jumble of clearings separated by stretches of the unknown, through which the narrowest of paths had been cut. V. S. Naipaul cityclearingcut share on social
How can you be an atheist and have an ideology to go with it? To be an atheist is to be free of some areas of belief. I don't see how that can become an ideology. V. S. Naipaul areaatheistbelief Change image and share on social
Argentine political life is like the life of an ant community or an African forest tribe: full of events, full of crisis and deaths, but life is always cyclical, and the year ends as it begins. V. S. Naipaul africanantargentine Change image and share on social
The first 50 years of the cinema were absolutely great years. Original minds were at work establishing the ways to tell a story. And what is happening now is a copying, a pastiche-ing of what was done by great men. V. S. Naipaul absolutelycinemacopy share on social
If a writer doesn't generate hostility, he is dead. V. S. Naipaul deadgeneratehostility Change image and share on social
Each book, intuitively sensed and, in the case of fiction, intuitively worked out, stands on what has gone before, and grows out of it. I feel that at any stage of my literary career it could have been said that the last book contained all the others. V. S. Naipaul bookcareercase share on social
There are certain things that are too painful for people to even write about sometimes, and there are certain things that are too hard to read about again. V. S. Naipaul hardpainfulpeople Change image and share on social
The reason is that they define how I have gone about my business. I have trusted to intuition. I did it at the beginning. I do it even now. I have no idea how things might turn out, where in my writing I might go next. V. S. Naipaul beginbusinessdefine share on social
