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Patrick Modiano Quotes


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Quotes by Patrick Modiano

Showing 1-10 of 21 Quotes by Patrick Modiano

Something happens between a novel and its reader which is similar to the process of developing photographs, the way they did it before the digital age. The photograph, as it was printed in the darkroom, became visible bit by bit. As you read your way through a novel, the same chemical process takes place.

~Patrick Modiano

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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

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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

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A novelist can never be his own reader, except when he is ridding his manuscript of syntax errors, repetitions, or the occasional superfluous paragraph.

~Patrick Modiano

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The more things remain obscure and mysterious, the more they interest me. I even try to find mystery in things that have none.

~Patrick Modiano

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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Biography

Nationality: French

Type: Novelist

Born: July 30th, 1945

Links

Find Patrick Modiano on Amazon

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