When I learnt to write I became my own master, I became very strong, and that strength is with me to this very day.
V. S. NaipaulRead
Some writers can only deal with childhood experience, because it's complete. For another kind of writer, life goes on, and he's able to keep processing that as well.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote discusses different perspectives writers have regarding their experiences, particularly childhood versus ongoing life experiences.
V. S. Naipaul highlights the distinction between writers who focus solely on childhood experiences, which they perceive as complete and unchangeable, and those who continue to process and draw from their ongoing life experiences. This reflects the idea that writing can stem from both finite moments in time and the fluid nature of life, influencing how stories and expressions are crafted.
Themes
WritingExperienceChildhoodLifePerspective
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech on creativity, one could use this quote to illustrate the different sources of inspiration for artists.
More from V. S. Naipaul
All quotes βIt is wrong to have an ideal view of the world. That's where the mischief starts. That's where everything starts unravelling.
V. S. NaipaulRead
If you decide to move to another country and to live within its laws you don't express your disregard for the essence of the culture. It's a form of aggression.
V. S. NaipaulRead
One must always try to see the truth of a situation - it makes things universal.
V. S. NaipaulRead
His ignorance seemed to widen with everything he read.
V. S. NaipaulRead
I think when you see so many Hindu temples of the 10th century or earlier disfigured, defaced, you realise that something terrible happened. I feel the civilisation of that closed world was mortally wounded by those invasions the old world is destroyed. That has to be understood. Ancient Hindu India was destroyed.
V. S. NaipaulRead
Similar quotes
The act of writing a song involves a degree of letting go of yourself, and that's very much being a child.
Alan MenkenRead
A work-room should be like an old shoe; no matter how shabby, it's better than a new one.
Willa CatherRead
Real people speak in my books about the main events of the age, such as the war, the Chernobyl disaster, and the downfall of a great empire.
Svetlana AlexievichRead
When you go to an art museum, the thing you're least likely to encounter is a picture of a black person. When it comes to ideas about art and about beauty, the black figure is absent.
Kerry James MarshallRead
I wanted to be Gerry Mulligan, only, see, I didn't have any kind of technique. So I thought, well, baritone sax is kind of easier; I can manage that - except I couldn't afford a baritone, so I bought an alto, which was the same fingering.
David BowieRead
It is only by loving nature, and going to her for everything, that good work can be done; but then we must look to her for the materials for pictures, not for pictures themselves. It is nature filtered through the mind and fingers of the artist that produces art, and the quality of the pictures depends on the fineness of that filter.
Henry Peach RobinsonRead