English - Novelist | December 12, 1914 - January 2, 2000
Take a newspaper account of Waterloo or Trafalgar, with all the small advertisements: it seems much more real than reading about it in a history book.
Patrick O'Brian
HistorySmallBookReadingNewspaper
When you're taking a fence on a horse, you don't think much; your body does all the thinking, and you're over or you're not over. It's much the same when you are doing a tricky thing with a pen. There are times when I'm writing very, very fast.
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The first interviews I gave were entirely unpleasant. You have people trying to trip you up with impolite questions that have nothing to do with the books. It's simply vulgar curiosity, and I won't have it.
PeopleCuriosityQuestionsYouFirst
In my case, I write in the past because I'm not really part of the present. I have nothing valid to say about anything current, though I have something to say about what existed then.
PastPresentSayNothingWritePart
On a ship, everything is enclosed: the people are right on top of each other and can't get up and walk away.
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