French - Novelist | July 30, 1945 -
The more things remain obscure and mysterious, the more they interest me. I even try to find mystery in things that have none.
Patrick Modiano
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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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In the end, we are all determined by the place and the time in which we were born.
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I think I became a writer because I didn't know of anything else to do. Maybe some incident from my childhood influenced me.
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When I was younger, I just put off the writing until later in the day, but now I write early every morning to get it done. I can only write for a few hours at a time; after that, my attention fades.
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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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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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For a long time, I've had a recurring dream - I dream I don't have to write any more, that I'm free. I'm not free, alas; I'm still clearing the same terrain, with the impression that it's never finished.
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I always have the impression that I write the same book.
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I write in the most classical French because this form is necessary for my novels: to translate the murky, floating, unsettling atmosphere I wanted them to have, I had to discipline it into the clearest, most traditional language possible.
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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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As a writer, one is always a little blind to what one writes.
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