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“A writer’s life is half ambition and half anxiety, and there has to be both. It is no good writing a novel and feeling fine, and it is no good writing a whole novel feeling miserable. It has to be both, that mixture of anxiety and ambition, and you get that with every novel, but more so when you write about these epics of human suffering. I felt that just as much when I wrote about the Gulag. Every writer knows what that is. The process goes… you have to think: ‘This novel I am writing is no good.’ Then you have to think: ‘All my novels are no good.’ And then, when you reach that point, you can begin.”
―
―
“In individuals as in nations, contentment is silent, which tends to unbalance the historical record.”
― A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century
― A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century
“A heart like a rubber band can be strong yet still break.”
― Aphrodite's Swimsuit
― Aphrodite's Swimsuit
“Love as a concrete foundation for an authentically functional civilization requires the around-the-clock labors of forgiveness. Without it, Love fails, Friendship fails, Intelligence fails, Humanity: fails.”
― Journey through the Power of the Rainbow: Quotations from a Life Made Out of Poetry
― Journey through the Power of the Rainbow: Quotations from a Life Made Out of Poetry
“I find it’s more fun to write about something that you don’t know completely and that you will discover on route. A dear friend of mine...once said: 'The only time I know anything is when it comes to me at the point of my pen.' So I think that if you start to write about things that you know half well, that you’re fascinated by, that you sense you have an appreciation of that others might not have, but you do have to acquire the knowledge as you go, you discover a great many things at the point of a pen. And it keeps the writing alive in itself in a way.
(in an interview with Martin Amis, 1991, see YouTube)”
―
(in an interview with Martin Amis, 1991, see YouTube)”
―
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William2’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at William2’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
1,081 books
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875 friends
2,135 books
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30 friends
1,043 books
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663 friends
476 books
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15 friends
774 books
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45 friends
2,242 books
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59 friends
1,456 books
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196 friends
2,826 books
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75 friends
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