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Philip Sington
“We drank our coffee the Russian way. That is to say we had vodka before it and vodka afterwards.”
Philip Sington, The Valley of Unknowing

Philip Sington
“Old Prague was a story-book city caked in grime: ancient, soot-blackened. History lived in every detail: in the deerstalker rooftops and the blue-sparking trams. He wandered the streets in disbelief, photographing everything, images from Kafka crowding into his head. With the turn of every corner it came back to him: the special frisson you get behind enemy lines.”
Philip Sington, Zoia's Gold

Philip Sington
“All writers are insecure, the male ones especially. It's well known. Why else would they spend so much time on make-believe? They're only happy in their imaginary worlds, because that's where they're in charge - where they're God. Did you know that Hemingway's mother dressed him as a girl until he was six years old?"
I was not offended by Claudia's glib psychological theory. Like many glib psychological theories, it struck me as fundamentally correct.”
Philip Sington, The Valley of Unknowing

Philip Sington
“I have found that in fiction one is freer to speak the truth, if only because in fiction the truth is not expected or required. You may easily disguise it, so that it is only recognized much later, when the story and the characters have faded into darkness.”
Philip Sington

Philip Sington
“For the writer under Actually Existing Socialism describing sex is a simple matter: he simply does not do it (the describing, I mean, not the sex).”
Philip Sington, The Valley of Unknowing

year in books
Lisa
1,390 books | 90 friends

Tracey
44,308 books | 4,210 friends

Amber
131 books | 47 friends

Francis D
128 books | 4 friends

Helena ...
104 books | 6 friends

Arthur
68 books | 166 friends

Stephanie
151 books | 121 friends

Selene
1,972 books | 93 friends

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