„I read anything that’s going to be interesting. But you don’t know what it is until you’ve read it. Somewhere in a book on the history of false teeth there’ll be the making of a novel.“
Terry Pratchett147
englischer Fantasy-Schriftsteller 1948 - 2015Ähnliche Zitate
— Carol Shields American author 1935 - 2003
Quelle: The Republic of Love
— Barry Hines British author 1939 - 2016
On Animal Farm
Barry Hines 1970 interview
— Brian W. Aldiss British science fiction author 1925 - 2017
“Basis for Negotiations” p. 122
Short fiction, Who Can Replace a Man? (1965)
— Warren G. Harding American politician, 29th president of the United States (in office from 1921 to 1923) 1865 - 1923
Remark to Judson Welliver, as quoted in Francis Russell (1968) The Shadow of Blooming Grove.
1920s
„Read history, works of truth, not novels and romances“
— Robert E. Lee Confederate general in the Civil War 1807 - 1870
„History was what had happened; class was something you read about in a book.“
— Amit Chaudhuri contemporary Indian-English novelist 1962
Odysseus Abroad (2014)
— Stanley Kubrick American film director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer and editor 1928 - 1999
„You want to know about anybody? See what books they read, and how they've been read…“
— Keri Hulme, buch The Bone People
Quelle: The Bone People
„You know, you don’t really need me. All you need to do is read your own books.“
— P. L. Travers Australian-British novelist, actress and journalist 1899 - 1996
The Paris Review interview (1982)
Kontext: I’ve always been interested in the Mother Goddess. Not long ago, a young person, whom I don’t know very well, sent a message to a mutual friend that said: “I’m an addict of Mary Poppins, and I want you to ask P. L. Travers if Mary Poppins is not really the Mother Goddess.” So, I sent back a message: “Well, I’ve only recently come to see that. She is either the Mother Goddess or one of her creatures — that is, if we’re going to look for mythological or fairy-tale origins of Mary Poppins.”
I’ve spent years thinking about it because the questions I’ve been asked, very perceptive questions by readers, have led me to examine what I wrote. The book was entirely spontaneous and not invented, not thought out. I never said, “Well, I’ll write a story about Mother Goddess and call it Mary Poppins.” It didn’t happen like that. I cannot summon up inspiration; I myself am summoned.
Once, when I was in the United States, I went to see a psychologist. It was during the war when I was feeling very cut off. I thought, Well, these people in psychology always want to see the kinds of things you’ve done, so I took as many of my books as were then written. I went and met the man, and he gave me another appointment. And at the next appointment the books were handed back to me with the words: “You know, you don’t really need me. All you need to do is read your own books.”
That was so interesting to me. I began to see, thinking about it, that people who write spontaneously as I do, not with invention, never really read their own books to learn from them. And I set myself to reading them. Every now and then I found myself saying, “But this is true. How did she know?” And then I realized that she is me. Now I can say much more about Mary Poppins because what was known to me in my blood and instincts has now come up to the surface in my head.
„I'm going to be dead before I read the books I'm going to read.“
— Tom Stoppard British playwright 1937
— P. L. Travers Australian-British novelist, actress and journalist 1899 - 1996
The Paris Review interview (1982)
— Thomas Carlyle Scottish philosopher, satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher 1795 - 1881
1860s, On The Choice Of Books (1866)
