Patrick Modiano Quotes
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I've never been good at saying no.
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There are moments when we are incapable of exchanging a single word with anybody…it’s beyond us…
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Because I find writing painful, I try to get it over with as fast as possible. But I write every day, or I lose the thread.
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Such photographs exist in every family. They were caught in a few seconds, the duration of the exposure, and these second have become an eternity.
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I AM NOTHING.Nothing but a pale shape.
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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.
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A novelist has more talent for written than oral assignments.
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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.
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Fredo Lampe. Am Rande Der Nacht. For me, name and title evoked those lighted windows from which you cannot tear your gaze. You are convinced that, behind them, somebody whom you have forgotten has been awaiting your return for years, or else that there is no longer anybody there. Only a lamp, left burning in the empty room.
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Writing is a strange and solitary activity. There are dispiriting times when you start working on the first few pages of a novel. Every day, you have the feeling you are on the wrong track. This creates a strong urge to go back and follow a different path. It is important not to give in to this urge but to keep going.
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Of all the punctuation marks; he told me ellipses were his favorites.
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You should never marry a lot younger than you...never....it never works ...there is not a single case of its working..
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His speech is hesitant because he is used to crossing out his words. It is true that after several redrafts, his style may be crystal clear. But when he takes the floor, he no longer has any means at his disposal to correct his stumbling speech.
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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.
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From one moment to another one can lose heart.
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Perhaps it was one of those mild, sunny winter days when you have a feeling of holiday and eternity- the illusion that passage of time is suspended, and that you need only slip through this breach to escape the trap which is closing around you.
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All that would remain of me would be the raincoat I’d been wearing, rolled on a bench.
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Writing is a strange and solitary activity.
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Certain coincidences risk passing unnoticed; certain people have appeared in our lives on several occasions without our realizing it.
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Ever since my childhood, I had seen my father carrying so many bags- suitcases with false bottoms , leather satchels or overnight bags, even those black briefcases that gave him a false air of repectability…. And I never knew just what was in them. ( 52 )
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Children are liable to expect more from life than their parents, and faced with adversity their reaction is more violent. They go farther, much farther than their parents, and, thereafter, their parents are unable to protect them.
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But I wasn’t quite sure how to spell ‘ Cartaud, and I found listings for Cartau, Cartaud , Cartault , Cartaux, Carteau, Carteaud, Carteaux, (34 )
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Why, one wonders, does lightning strike in one place rather than another?