“In the Hitler years we still believed in books enough to burn them. Imagine,” — William T. Vollmann Copy Share Image
At least I hope - that the fiction I've written so far has flaws but has mostly been successful. — William T. Vollmann Copy Share Image
I read and write for most of the day, but I do let myself be interrupted by real life. I enjoy going… — William T. Vollmann Copy Share Image
As large publishers turn into monopolies, and the MBAs who are running them - maybe editors used to run them before -… — William T. Vollmann Copy Share Image
I feel like I'm almost ready to write fiction about the border. But even after 10 years of writing nonfiction about it,… — William T. Vollmann Copy Share Image
Kabuki is the way that I so often write; Noh is how I would write if I were more 'spiritual,' more understated,… — William T. Vollmann Copy Share Image
At least for me, it takes more knowledge to write fiction than nonfiction. At least about someplace that I begin with a… — William T. Vollmann Copy Share Image
[Ernest ]Hemingway always said, "Write about what you know." I think you can do that, and if you want to write about… — William T. Vollmann Copy Share Image
If I'm writing a book, and I'm warned, 'Oh, this is unsaleable, you need to make it shorter,' or, 'It has to… — William T. Vollmann Copy Share Image
When I'm dying, I want to think I did what I felt was best for the words I was writing. This may… — William T. Vollmann Copy Share Image
“Most literary critics agree that fiction cannot be reduced to mere falsehood. Well-crafted protagonists come to life, pornography causes orgasms, and the… — William T. Vollmann Copy Share Image
It's fun for me to try to write concise, compact things. It's a very good exercise for me. And I think it's… — William T. Vollmann Copy Share Image
When I was writing the first few books, what I would do is write a bunch of sentences and then go back… — William T. Vollmann Copy Share Image
I think that we're all, as human beings, so limited. If we want to write about ourselves, that's fairly easy. And if… — William T. Vollmann Copy Share Image
Most literary critics agree that fiction cannot be reduced to mere falsehood. Well-crafted protagonists come to life, pornography causes orgasms, and the… — William T. Vollmann Copy Share Image
I wish I could go back and rewrite my first book, You Bright and Risen Angels; I could do a better job.… — William T. Vollmann Copy Share Image
“I just make the best book that I can and try to not worry about audience or if it will sell. The… — William T. Vollmann Copy Share Image
“After all, one of life’s best pleasures is reading a book of perfect beauty; more pleasurable still is rereading that book; most… — William T. Vollmann Copy Share Image
Some friends and I, we went right up there behind the studio and we got on a train, we could tell it was going… — William T. Vollmann Copy Share
I read and write for most of the day, but I do let myself be interrupted by real life. I enjoy going out with… — William T. Vollmann Copy Share
“A treble clef, for example, resembles a Muscovite or Leningrader in a bulky hooded parka. A bass clef bends as simply and painfully as… — William T. Vollmann Copy Share
Oh, ants, my sisters, good old honeydew-seekers! From close up you are sticky and shiny and gristly; and your nymphs have parasitic red mites… — William T. Vollmann Copy Share
If I didn't feel that I was doing something or trying to do something for others, then I would have very little excuse for… — William T. Vollmann Copy Share
Just for the hell of it, try to love someone as unlike you as possible. — William T. Vollmann Copy Share
“The shortest man, codenamed RIMSKY, said to me that freedom means understanding our place within the laws of history; we are more free when… — William T. Vollmann Copy Share
“Do you want to know what happiness is? Happiness is the absence of unpleasant information.” — William T. Vollmann Copy Share
My father hates organized religion, probably because he hates the God who killed his little girl back in 1968. I find religions variously bemusing. — William T. Vollmann Copy Share
There's an Inuit myth about the origin of the human race. There were two brothers, and the younger brother eventually gets changed into a… — William T. Vollmann Copy Share
I first got really interested in Noh in about 1977. There was an independent bookstore in Bloomington, Indiana where I was going to high… — William T. Vollmann Copy Share
“More aid, better directed! Couldn't we all use that? And what if the universe enacts less aid, more poorly directed?” — William T. Vollmann Copy Share
“whatever fate sends us quickly becomes us, and we grow blind to what we might otherwise have been. And” — William T. Vollmann Copy Share
![“[Ernest ]Hemingway always said, "Write about what you know." I think you can do that, and if you want to write about what you don't know, you can. It just takes a lot more work.” quote by William T. Vollmann](https://sms4smile.com/q/img-quotes/0e0/william-t-vollmann-2100_can-do_ernest-hemingway-always-said-write-about_1098180.jpg)
