When I was younger, I wondered if it was possible to be a good person and a writer. — Karl Ove Knausgard Copy Share Image
Shame tells you when you've gone too far. Then you try if it's okay to go too far. And it might be… — Karl Ove Knausgard Copy Share Image
In 2008, when I wrote Book 1 and Book 2, the head of the publishing house suggested twelve books - one each… — Karl Ove Knausgard Book Copy Share Image
I spent six years after my first novel and five years after my second without getting into a new book. — Karl Ove Knausgard Book Copy Share Image
“The problem is not so much that the world limits your imagination as your imagination limits the world.” — Karl Ove Knausgård Imagination Copy Share Image
I do think readers should respect my privacy, but I don't get angry when I get personal questions, because I understand why. — Karl Ove Knausgard Angry Copy Share Image
In 'Min Kamp,' I wanted to see how far it was possible to take realism before it would be impossible to read. — Karl Ove Knausgard Copy Share Image
“that is what you do when you breathe, you trespass, again and again you trespass on the world.” — Karl Ove Knausgård Copy Share Image
“Writing was a defeat, it was a humiliation, it was coming face-to-face with yourself and seeing you weren't good enough.” — Karl Ove Knausgård Defeat Copy Share Image
In my experience, when you're writing, you want the truth, and you don't want to be apologetic in any way. But there… — Karl Ove Knausgard Copy Share Image
When I wrote my first novel - I was nineteen - I did it very quickly. If you write fast, you feel… — Karl Ove Knausgard Books Copy Share Image
“The strange thing about Yngve's nocturnal life was that on occasion he could be heard speaking eastern Norwegian dialect in his sleep.… — Karl Ove Knausgård Life Copy Share Image
Those small things, like giving a hug to man, I try to avoid it. Because I can see the situation is coming,… — Karl Ove Knausgard Copy Share Image
“What was the point of all this? Flying all over Norway to read for ten minutes to four people? Talking smugly about… — Karl Ove Knausgård Books Copy Share Image
“Writing is drawing the essence of what we know out of the shadows. That is what writing is about. Not what happens… — Karl Ove Knausgård Writer Copy Share Image
“The heavens were inexhaustible, it had rained every day since the beginning of September and except for a couple of hours I… — Karl Ove Knausgård Copy Share Image
If you are disappearing from yourself, but you're still writing, then there is a kind of activity of thinking going on, which… — Karl Ove Knausgard Copy Share Image
“Modernist literature with all its vast apparatus was an instrument, a form of perception, and once absorbed, the insights it brought could… — Karl Ove Knausgård Books Copy Share Image
“With its four legs and its flat, soft surface, the bed gently accommodates one of our most basic needs: it is good… — Karl Ove Knausgård Copy Share Image
“When the wave, equally suddenly, retreated, it left a void which resembled that of the morning, yet had a character of its… — Karl Ove Knausgård Copy Share Image
“We read, we learn, we experience, we make adjustments. Then one day we reach the point where all the necessary distances have… — Karl Ove Knausgård Copy Share Image
“When you visualized the future and conjured up a world where urban life had spread everywhere and man had achieved his long-desired… — Karl Ove Knausgård Beer Copy Share Image
“Was it Jesus you saw a picture of?” he says and looks up at me. If it had not been for the… — Karl Ove Knausgård Christian Copy Share Image
“In the mist, in the darkness of the forest, in the dewdrops on the spruce needles. In the whales that swam in… — Karl Ove Knausgård Copy Share Image
“I loved it, I loved the feeling, it was my favorite feeling, but it never led to anything good, and the day… — Karl Ove Knausgård Copy Share Image
“What a stupid, fucking, idiotic country this was. All the young women drank water in such vast quantities that it was coming… — Karl Ove Knausgård Copy Share Image
“Yes, all of this I thought about, all of this filled me with sorrow and a sense of helplessness, and if there… — Karl Ove Knausgård Comfortable life Copy Share Image
“As your perspective of the world increases not only is the pain it inflicts on you less but also its meaning. Understanding… — Karl Ove Knausgård Aging Copy Share Image
“For, while previously I saw time as a stretch of terrain that had to be covered, with the future as a distant… — Karl Ove Knausgård Life Copy Share Image
“I, for my part, never looked forward to anything except the moment the office door closed behind me and I was alone… — Karl Ove Knausgård Time Copy Share Image
“I do not want anyone to get close to me, I do not want anyone to see me, and this is the… — Karl Ove Knausgård Copy Share Image
Having a writer in the family is a curse - for the family. I do feel more or less guilty when I'm… — Karl Ove Knausgard Curse Copy Share Image
“All erect dicks are bent. Or, if not all, then at least enough of them to be eulogized in a poem.” — Karl Ove Knausgård Erect Copy Share Image
“... to sit alone in a bar chatting with strangers would have been inconceivable for me, it was closer to my nature… — Karl Ove Knausgård Nature Copy Share Image
“It was a fantastic feeling, but it left me restless because the most important thing in it was the longing, for what… — Karl Ove Knausgård Future Copy Share Image
'My Struggle' came from a place of questioning and feelings of inauthenticity and frustration, and almost all of that is gone. — Karl Ove Knausgard Adversity Copy Share Image
When I write something, I can't remember in the end if this is a memory or if it's not - I'm talking… — Karl Ove Knausgard Copy Share Image
“The only thing I have learned from life is to endure it, never to question it, and to burn up the longing… — Karl Ove Knausgård Life Copy Share Image
I never read the translation before publication. The most important things for me is that the emotion is captured in such a… — Karl Ove Knausgard Copy Share Image
