Paul Auster

“I knew from the age of 16 that I wanted to be a writer because I just didn't think I could do anything else. So I read and read and wrote short stories and dreamed of escape.”

“I was always interested in French poetry sort of as a sideline to my own work, I was translating contemporary French poets. That kind of spilled out into translation as a way to earn money,...”

“How is it possible for someone who believes that the world was created in six days to have a rational conversation with me, who doesn't believe that, about other possibilities?”

“History is present in all my novels. And whether I am directly talking about the sociological moment or just immersing my character in the environment, I am very aware of it.”

“Writing has always had that tactile quality for me. It's a physical experience.”

“The kind of fiction I'm trying to write is about telling the truth.”

“Every generation always thinks it was better before, and I think people have been saying this for probably thousands of years.”

“I guess the toughest things in translations are word play, which can never be reproduced exactly.”

“I like the sound a typewriter makes.”

“In my studio, it is unkempt and unattractive. Once I'm in my work, I don't notice where I am.”

“All I wanted to do was write - at the time, poems, and prose, too. I guess my ambition was simply to make money however I could to keep myself going in some modest way, and I didn't need muc...”

“I woke up one day and thought: 'I want to write a book about the history of my body.' I could justify talking about my mother because it was in her body that my body began.”