Book Quotes by Paul Auster

What better portrait of a writer than to show a man who has been bewitched by books?

— Paul Auster

“Books force you to give something back to them, to exercise your intelligence and imagination.”

— Paul Auster

One should never underestimate the power of books.

— Paul Auster

Books demand more. You have to be a more active participant.

— Paul Auster

“And that's finally all anyone wants out of a book- to be amused”

— Paul Auster

You find the book in the process of doing it. That's the adventure of the job.

— Paul Auster

The biggest book for me, when I was fifteen, was Crime and Punishment, which I read in a kind of fever. When…

— Paul Auster

“I learned that books are never finished, that it is possible for stories to go on writing themselves without an author.”

— Paul Auster

I think that sense of unreality inspired me to write the story within the book that [August] Brill tells himself, one of…

— Paul Auster

As long as a man had the courage to reject what society told him to do, he could live life on his…

— Paul Auster

You see, the interesting thing about books, as opposed, say, to films, is that it's always just one person encountering the book,…

— Paul Auster

To care about words, to have a stake in what is written, to believe in the power of books - this overwhelms…

— Paul Auster

The tone of every book is slightly different; there's a music that each has that is distinct from all the others.

— Paul Auster

I think that's what turns young men and women into writers - the happiness you discover living in books.

— Paul Auster

In my books, there are a lot of people stuck in rooms. Or, conversely, out in the wide open. It seems that,…

— Paul Auster

The book that convinced me I wanted to be a writer was 'Crime and Punishment'. I put the thing down after reading…

— Paul Auster

When I start, I have a feeling for the characters, and maybe the shape of the story. Sometimes I might even have…

— Paul Auster

“I was in the book, and the book was in my head, and as long as I stayed inside my head, I…

— Paul Auster

As a poet or a novelist or a painter, you are pushing yourself all the time, always looking for a new way…

— Paul Auster

You can't ever approach a book as a complete virgin, certainly not if you're a critic. There is a lot of bad…

— Paul Auster

Every book is an image of solitude. It is a tangible object that one can pick up, put down, open, and close,…

— Paul Auster

Everyone reads a different book. That's what's interesting. Everyone sees a different film, as well. We bring our past lives to whatever…

— Paul Auster

“Each book is a new book. I’ve never written it before and I have to teach myself how to write it as…

— Paul Auster

I say at the very end of "Winter Journal" that I do dream about my father often. I think I have a…

— Paul Auster

A book, at the same time, also has to do with what I call a buzz in the head. It's a certain…

— Paul Auster

I remember I thought I should become a doctor, even though I had no talent for science whatsoever. Then of course, until…

— Paul Auster

Every life is inexplicable, I kept telling myself. No matter how many facts are told, no matter how many details are given,…

— Paul Auster

I never experiment with anything in my books. Experimentation means you don't know what you're doing.

— Paul Auster

I hate reading digital books. I don't enjoy the experience. I like smelling the paper, turning the pages. I think the book…

— Paul Auster

I am very scared at the beginning of each book, because I've never written it before. I feel I have to teach…

— Paul Auster

I don't know if she should worry too much, I mean some of our greatest writers have had movies made of their…

— Paul Auster

I don't like pictures in books. I feel that the pictures diminish the words, and the words diminish the pictures, and it…

— Paul Auster

Each book I've done somehow finds its own unique form, a specific way it has to be written, and once I find…

— Paul Auster

I've written books that have taken me fifteen years, from first sentence to last, and some that only take three or four…

— Paul Auster

No book includes the entire world. It's limited. And so it doesn't seem like an aesthetic compromise to have to do that.…

— Paul Auster

You can look at my autobiographical pieces as source books... But, you see, my fiction doesn't revolve around autobiographical questions.

— Paul Auster

I woke up one day and thought: 'I want to write a book about the history of my body.' I could justify…

— Paul Auster

Films and television and even comic books are churning out vast quantities of fictional narratives, and the public continues to swallow them…

— Paul Auster

When you pick up a book, everyone knows it's imaginary. You don't have to pretend it's not a book. We don't have…

— Paul Auster

Actually, screenplays were much more detailed than what I did in the book In the book I had to invent a style…

— Paul Auster