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“The arrival in Paris, as grim as ever. The leprous façades of the Pont Cardinet flats, behind which one invariably imagines retired folk agonizing alongside their cat Poucette which is eating up half their pension with its Friskies. Those weird metal structures that indecently mount each other to form a grid of overhead wires. And the inevitable advertising hoardings flashing by, gaudy and repellent. ‘A gay and changing spectacle on the walls.’ Bullshit. Pure fucking bullshit.”
―
―
“From the moment I start a new novel, life’s just one endless torture. The first few chapters may go fairly well and I may feel there’s still a chance to prove my worth, but that feeling soon disappears and every day I feel less and less satisfied. I begin to say the book’s no good, far inferior to my earlier ones, until I’ve wrung torture out of every page, every sentence, every word, and the very commas begin to look excruciatingly ugly. Then, when it’s finished, what a relief! Not the blissful delight of the gentleman who goes into ecstasies over his own production, but the resentful relief of a porter dropping a burden that’s nearly broken his back . . . Then it starts all over again, and it’ll go on starting all over again till it grinds the life out of me, and I shall end my days furious with myself for lacking talent, for not leaving behind a more finished work, a bigger pile of books, and lie on my death-bed filled with awful doubts about the task I’ve done, wondering whether it was as it ought to have been, whether I ought not to have done this or that, expressing my last dying breath the wish that I might do it all over again!”
― The Masterpiece
― The Masterpiece
Loosed in Translation
— 532 members
— last activity Mar 06, 2026 05:09PM
Are you interested in world literature, and works in translation? Come here for recommendations, resources, links, advice on who the best translator o ...more
Thoughtful Thinking Christians
— 40 members
— last activity Jan 31, 2014 12:08PM
There are quite a few Christian groups on Goodreads, so why another? As a member of some of those groups and not of others I couldn't help but feel th ...more
/r/RadicalChristianity
— 130 members
— last activity May 15, 2026 12:45PM
Find us on www.reddit.com/r/RadicalChristianity /r/radicalChristianity has emerged as a community of people discussing the intersection of philosoph ...more
bossanova’s 2025 Year in Books
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