Background Image
Sometimes i say that writing a novel is the same as constructing a chair: a person must be able to sit in it, to be balanced on it. if i can produce a great chair, even better. but above all i have to make sure that it has four stable feet.
-Jose Saramago
Please Wait....
Translating....

Sometimes I Say That Writing A Novel

Jose Saramago
Sometimes i say that writing a novel is the same as constructing a chair: a person must be able to sit in it, to be balanced on it. if i can produce a great chair, even better. but above all i have to make sure that it has four stable feet.
Views: 68536
Cite this Page
Prevent plagiarism by providing proper attribution.
APA FORMAT
Embed this Quote
Copy this HTML code to embed the quote on your website or blog.
HTML CODE
Topic
Writing Feet Able

More From Jose Saramago

What i learned, more than anything, was that you can't have it all balanced perfectly at any one time. when i was young, it was much more balanced toward work. when i had my children, it was much more balanced toward love and family, and i didn't get a lot of work done. so you can't ask of it to be perfectly balanced at any time, but your hope is, before you die, you've somehow had each of those spheres come to life. that's probably more important than success in any one of those spheres alone.
Children Important Spheres
My life is routine. i wake up early in the morning. i brush my teeth. i sit on the floor of the cell i do not go to breakfast. i stare at a gray cement wall. i keep my legs crossed my back straight my eyes forward. i take deep breaths in and out, in and out, and i try not to move. i sit for as long as i can i sit until everything hurts i sit until everything stops hurting i sit until i lose myself in the gray wall i sit until my mind becomes as blank as the gray wall. i sit and i stare and i breathe. i sit and i stare. i breathe.
Hurt Morning Wall
It's very bad to write a novel by act of will. i can do a book of nonfiction work that way - just sign the contract and do the book because, provided the topic has some meaning for me, i know i can do it. but a novel is different. a novel is more like falling in love. you don't say, 'i'm going to fall in love next tuesday, i'm going to begin my novel.' the novel has to come to you. it has to feel just like love.
Falling In Love Book Love You
D.h. lawrence, i think, defined the difference between writing an article and writing a novel very well. he said, in writing a novel, the writer must be able to identify emotionally and intellectually with two or three or four contradicting perspectives and give each of them very a convincing voice. it's like playing tennis with yourself and you have to be on both sides of the yard. you have to be on both sides, or all sides if there are more than two sides.
Writing Thinking Giving
Like a lot of us, sometimes i'm preaching to the choir, and sometimes my voice doesn't even get heard at all. sometimes i think that what i'm writing now might not even have an impact for the next three or four generations. sometimes i sit there and write, and i think, "it'll be two hundred years before they get what i'm writing about."
Writing Thinking Sometimes
Four. that's what i want you to remember. if you don't get your idea across in the first four minutes, you won't do it. four sentences to a paragraph. four letters to a word. the most important words in the english language all have four letters. home. love. food. land. peace. . .i know peace has five letters, but any damn fool knows it should have four.
Home Should Have Land
Similar Quotes
I don't really have girlfriends in movies, if you've noticed. well, i have a few girlfriends, i just... i stay at home a lot. i'm just not very social. i don't do a lot with them, and i'm very homebound. i'll talk to my family, i talk to brad... but i don't know, i don't have a lot of friends i talk to. he is really the only person i talk to.
Girlfriend Home Lots Of Friends
At home, i watch fights and documentaries - that's it. if it's not about the birth and death of stars, 'frozen planet,' or someone getting punched in the face, i'm probably not watching it.
Stars Home Fighting
I mean obviously we're all dealing with a lot more strangers due to the web. i'd say it has more to do with the quality of interactions. when you're physically interacting with someone, it forces you to be more present and probably a little more uncomfortable. you have to tolerate being outside the comfort of your own home.
Home Mean Quality
I talk to bankers, distributors, marketing people. i used to sit at home in my tracksuit bottoms, and the real excitement of my day would be going out to get a copy of private eye and a latte.
Real Eye Home

Trending Author

Malcolm Fraser
Malcolm Fraser
Brenda Fassie
Brenda Fassie
Leslie Fiedler
Leslie Fiedler
Lance Loud
Lance Loud
Alberto Manguel
Alberto Manguel
Andy Pick
Andy Pick
Category
Information
Inspirational
Philosophy
Personal Growth
Happiness & Joy
Life Lessons
Success & Business
Motivation