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The natural world is often bleak, but the language devoted to it is as careful as needlepoint and prophetic as well.
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I lived around the corner from Saul Bellow.
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Tony Judt's remarkable 'The Memory Chalet' was written from the prison of mute immobility.
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All the stories I write come from someone I've met or some anecdote I've heard.
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I wrote in the cellar for a number of years. I needed a private space, and it had a furnace, so it was always warm.
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I wanted to publish a book simply to be buried with it; that's all I wanted. I had no ambition beyond that.
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Architecture is undistinguished, sometimes derelict, but occasionally, as in 'Post and Beam,' there is something arresting in a setting... the building behind the Cathedral.
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I was quite satisfied with my creative life. I've always had reinforcement from a small but devoted readership.
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I have a skepticism toward romance. I believe that decency and companionship are, in the long run, more important in life.
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I always loved to read, and I wanted to be part of the project of literature. My physical longevity is due to luck, and my literary longevity is due to my physical longevity.
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I think the computer is a hindrance to good writing because it is so tempting to leave what you've written. If you use a typewriter, you must retype if you make a mistake, and thus, you must re-examine every word.
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The market town of Cheltenham, in Gloucestershire, was a popular 19th - century English spa. Its mineral springs were supposed to be good for you. This was before the invention of bran. In the 20th century, Cheltenham grew into an active municipality.
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I know a lot of single people who are not miserable as society tells them they're supposed to be.
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There's no rule I want to break or ever wanted to break - I find the conventional life gratifying - as long as I can sit at my typewriter, alone, for half a day.