---
title: "5 Little by little Quotes By Paul Auster"
description: "5 Little by little quotes by Paul Auster. Plus more from Paul Auster and more Little by little sayings from other authors."
image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/368/paul-auster-351_hotel-room_most-lives-vanish-a-person-dies-and-litt_70566.jpg"
---

> [“Most lives vanish. A person dies, and little by little all traces of that life disappear. An inventor survives in his inventions,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-auster/most-lives-vanish-a-person-dies-and-little-by-little-all-traces-of/)

[Paul Auster](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paul-auster/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/368/paul-auster-351_hotel-room_most-lives-vanish-a-person-dies-and-litt_70566.jpg)

> [“Little by little, as you came to know her better in the weeks that followed, you discovered that eye to eye on…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-auster/little-by-little-as-you-came-to-know-her-better-in-the-weeks-that/)

[paul auster](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paul-auster/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/6a7/paul-auster-351_books_little-by-little-as-you-came-to-know-her_1432773.jpg)

> [He no longer wished to be dead. At the same time, it cannot be said that he was glad to be alive.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-auster/he-no-longer-wished-to-be-dead-at-the-same-time-it-cannot-be-said/)

[Paul Auster](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paul-auster/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f2b/paul-auster-351_alive_he-no-longer-wished-to-be-dead-at-the-sa_1978227.jpg)

> [“Deep down, I don’t believe it takes any special talent for a person to lift himself off the ground and hover in…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-auster/deep-down-i-don-t-believe-it-takes-any-special-talent-for-a-person-to/)

[Paul Auster](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paul-auster/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/076/paul-auster-351_breathe_deep-down-i-don-t-believe-it-takes-any-s_2288041.jpg)

> [“Yes. A language that will at last say what we have to say. For our words no longer correspond to the world.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-auster/yes-a-language-that-will-at-last-say-what-we-have-to-say-for-our/)

[Paul Auster](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paul-auster/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/4e3/paul-auster-351_language_yes-a-language-that-will-at-last-say-wha_2808029.jpg)

## Other authors on Little by little

## More by Paul Auster

> [“On his best walks, he was able to feel that he was nowhere. And this, finally, was all he ever asked of things: to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-auster/on-his-best-walks-he-was-able-to-feel-that-he-was-nowhere-and-this/)

[Paul Auster](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paul-auster/)

> [“No es que escribir me produzca un gran placer, pero es mucho peor si no lo hago.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-auster/no-es-que-escribir-me-produzca-un-gran-placer-pero-es-mucho-peor-si/)

[Paul Auster](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/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, it's not…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-auster/you-see-the-interesting-thing-about-books-as-opposed-say-to-films-is/)

[Paul Auster](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paul-auster/)

> [I'm not a man deeply interested in technology. It eludes me.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-auster/i-m-not-a-man-deeply-interested-in-technology-it-eludes-me/)

[Paul Auster](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paul-auster/)

> [The joke is the purest, most essential form of storytelling. Every word has to count.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-auster/the-joke-is-the-purest-most-essential-form-of-storytelling-every-word/)

[Paul Auster](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paul-auster/)

> [“What people saw when he appeared before them, then, was not really him, but a person he had invented, an artificial creature he could…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-auster/what-people-saw-when-he-appeared-before-them-then-was-not-really-him/)

[Paul Auster](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paul-auster/)

> [I had made an empirical discovery and it carried all the weight of a mathematical proof.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-auster/i-had-made-an-empirical-discovery-and-it-carried-all-the-weight-of-a/)

[Paul Auster](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paul-auster/)

> [As long as there's one person to believe it, there's no story that can't be true.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-auster/as-long-as-there-s-one-person-to-believe-it-there-s-no-story-that-can/)

[Paul Auster](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paul-auster/)

> [Writing has always had a tactile quality for me. It's a physical experience.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-auster/writing-has-always-had-a-tactile-quality-for-me-it-s-a-physical/)

[Paul Auster](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paul-auster/)

> [People look at the same passage, and one person will say this is the best thing he's ever read, and another person will say…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-auster/people-look-at-the-same-passage-and-one-person-will-say-this-is-the/)

[Paul Auster](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paul-auster/)

> [I was very moved to see that the name of the boat was Hamlet - an imaginary character becomes so important to people, we…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-auster/i-was-very-moved-to-see-that-the-name-of-the-boat-was-hamlet-an/)

[Paul Auster](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paul-auster/)

> [Our lifelong certainties about the world can be demolished in a single second.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-auster/our-lifelong-certainties-about-the-world-can-be-demolished-in-a/)

[Paul Auster](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paul-auster/)

> [The ideal reader's the same, and I suppose this person has never had a face or a gender or an age. It's just some…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-auster/the-ideal-reader-s-the-same-and-i-suppose-this-person-has-never-had-a/)

[Paul Auster](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paul-auster/)

> [“Most lives vanish. A person dies, and little by little all traces of that life disappear. An inventor survives in his inventions, an architect…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-auster/most-lives-vanish-a-person-dies-and-little-by-little-all-traces-of/)

[Paul Auster](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paul-auster/)

> [“and cut down many trees. When the Humans”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-auster/and-cut-down-many-trees-when-the-humans/)

[Paul Auster](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paul-auster/)

```json
{
    "@context": "https://schema.org",
    "@graph": [
        {
            "@type": "ItemList",
            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/little-by-little/paul-auster/#itemlist",
            "name": "5 Little by little Quotes By Paul Auster",
            "numberOfItems": 5,
            "itemListElement": [
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 1,
                    "item": {
                        "@type": "Quotation",
                        "text": "“Most lives vanish. A person dies, and little by little all traces of that life disappear. An inventor survives in his inventions, an architect survives in his buildings, but most people leave behind no monuments or lasting achievements: a shelf of photograph albums, a fifth-grade report card, a bowling trophy, an ashtray filched from a Florida hotel room on the final morning of some dimly remembered vacation. A few objects, a few documents, and a smattering of impressions made on other people. Those people invariably tell stories about the dead person, but more often than not dates are scrambled, facts are left out, and the truth becomes increasingly distorted, and when those people die in their turn, most of the stories vanish with them.”",
                        "creator": {
                            "@type": "Person",
                            "name": "Paul Auster"
                        },
                        "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-auster/most-lives-vanish-a-person-dies-and-little-by-little-all-traces-of/",
                        "image": {
                            "@type": "ImageObject",
                            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/368/paul-auster-351_hotel-room_most-lives-vanish-a-person-dies-and-litt_70566.jpg",
                            "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/368/paul-auster-351_hotel-room_most-lives-vanish-a-person-dies-and-litt_70566.jpg",
                            "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/368/paul-auster-351_hotel-room_most-lives-vanish-a-person-dies-and-litt_70566.jpg",
                            "width": 1080,
                            "height": 1080,
                            "caption": "“Most lives vanish. A person dies, and little by little all traces of that life disappear. An inventor…” — Paul Auster",
                            "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes",
                            "creator": {
                                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization"
                            }
                        }
                    }
                },
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 2,
                    "item": {
                        "@type": "Quotation",
                        "text": "“Little by little, as you came to know her better in the weeks that followed, you discovered that eye to eye on nearly everything of any importance. Your politics were the same, most of the books you cared about were the same books, and you had familiar attitudes about what you wanted out of life: love, work, and children- with money and possessions far down on the list. Much to your relief, your personalities were nothing alike. She laughed more than you did, she was freer and more outgoing than you were, she was wormer than you were, and yet, all the way down at the bottom, at the nethermost point where you were joined together, you felt that you had met another version of yourself- but one that was more fully evolved than you were, better able to express what you kept bottled up inside you, a saner being. You adored her, and for the first time in your life, the person you adored adored you back. You came from entirely different worlds, a young Lutheran girl from Minnesota and a not so young Jew from New York, but just two and a half months after your chance encounter on February twenty-third thirty years ago, you decided to move in together. Until then, every decision you had made about women had been a wrong decision- but not this one.”",
                        "creator": {
                            "@type": "Person",
                            "name": "Paul Auster"
                        },
                        "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-auster/little-by-little-as-you-came-to-know-her-better-in-the-weeks-that/",
                        "image": {
                            "@type": "ImageObject",
                            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/6a7/paul-auster-351_books_little-by-little-as-you-came-to-know-her_1432773.jpg",
                            "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/6a7/paul-auster-351_books_little-by-little-as-you-came-to-know-her_1432773.jpg",
                            "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/6a7/paul-auster-351_books_little-by-little-as-you-came-to-know-her_1432773.jpg",
                            "width": 1080,
                            "height": 1080,
                            "caption": "“Little by little, as you came to know her better in the weeks that followed, you discovered that eye to eye…” — paul auster",
                            "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes",
                            "creator": {
                                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization"
                            }
                        }
                    }
                },
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 3,
                    "item": {
                        "@type": "Quotation",
                        "text": "He no longer wished to be dead. At the same time, it cannot be said that he was glad to be alive. But at least he did not resent it. He was alive, and the stubbornness of this fact had little by little begun to fascinate him - as if he had managed to outlive himself, as if he were somehow living a posthumous life.",
                        "creator": {
                            "@type": "Person",
                            "name": "Paul Auster"
                        },
                        "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-auster/he-no-longer-wished-to-be-dead-at-the-same-time-it-cannot-be-said/",
                        "image": {
                            "@type": "ImageObject",
                            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f2b/paul-auster-351_alive_he-no-longer-wished-to-be-dead-at-the-sa_1978227.jpg",
                            "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f2b/paul-auster-351_alive_he-no-longer-wished-to-be-dead-at-the-sa_1978227.jpg",
                            "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f2b/paul-auster-351_alive_he-no-longer-wished-to-be-dead-at-the-sa_1978227.jpg",
                            "width": 1080,
                            "height": 1080,
                            "caption": "“He no longer wished to be dead. At the same time, it cannot be said that he was glad to be alive. But at…” — Paul Auster",
                            "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes",
                            "creator": {
                                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization"
                            }
                        }
                    }
                },
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 4,
                    "item": {
                        "@type": "Quotation",
                        "text": "“Deep down, I don’t believe it takes any special talent for a person to lift himself off the ground and hover in the air. We all have it in us—every man, woman, and child—and with enough hard work and concentration, every human being is capable of…the feat….You must learn to stop being yourself. That’s where it begins, and everything else follows from that. You must let yourself evaporate. Let your muscles go limp, breathe until you feel your soul pouring out of you, and then shut your eyes. That’s how it’s done. The emptiness inside your body grows lighter than the air around you. Little by little, you begin to weigh less than nothing. You shut your eyes; you spread your arms; you let yourself evaporate. And then, little by little, you lift yourself off the ground. Like so.”",
                        "creator": {
                            "@type": "Person",
                            "name": "Paul Auster"
                        },
                        "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-auster/deep-down-i-don-t-believe-it-takes-any-special-talent-for-a-person-to/",
                        "image": {
                            "@type": "ImageObject",
                            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/076/paul-auster-351_breathe_deep-down-i-don-t-believe-it-takes-any-s_2288041.jpg",
                            "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/076/paul-auster-351_breathe_deep-down-i-don-t-believe-it-takes-any-s_2288041.jpg",
                            "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/076/paul-auster-351_breathe_deep-down-i-don-t-believe-it-takes-any-s_2288041.jpg",
                            "width": 1080,
                            "height": 1080,
                            "caption": "“Deep down, I don’t believe it takes any special talent for a person to lift himself off the ground and hover…” — Paul Auster",
                            "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes",
                            "creator": {
                                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization"
                            }
                        }
                    }
                },
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 5,
                    "item": {
                        "@type": "Quotation",
                        "text": "“Yes. A language that will at last say what we have to say. For our words no longer correspond to the world. When things were whole, we felt confident that our words could express them. But little by little these things have broken apart, shattered, collapsed into chaos. And yet our words have remained the same. Hence, every time we try to speak of what we see, we speak falsely, distorting the very thing we are trying to represent. […] Consider a word that refers to a thing- “ umbrella”, for example. […] Not only is an umbrella a thing, it is a thing that performs a function. […] What happens when a thing no longer performs its function? […] the umbrella ceases to be an umbrella. It has changed into something else. The word, however, has remained the same. Therefore it can no longer express the thing.”",
                        "creator": {
                            "@type": "Person",
                            "name": "Paul Auster"
                        },
                        "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-auster/yes-a-language-that-will-at-last-say-what-we-have-to-say-for-our/",
                        "image": {
                            "@type": "ImageObject",
                            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/4e3/paul-auster-351_language_yes-a-language-that-will-at-last-say-wha_2808029.jpg",
                            "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/4e3/paul-auster-351_language_yes-a-language-that-will-at-last-say-wha_2808029.jpg",
                            "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/4e3/paul-auster-351_language_yes-a-language-that-will-at-last-say-wha_2808029.jpg",
                            "width": 1080,
                            "height": 1080,
                            "caption": "“Yes. A language that will at last say what we have to say. For our words no longer correspond to the world…” — Paul Auster",
                            "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes",
                            "creator": {
                                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization"
                            }
                        }
                    }
                }
            ]
        },
        {
            "@type": "CollectionPage",
            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/little-by-little/paul-auster/#webpage",
            "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/little-by-little/paul-auster/",
            "name": "Little by little Quotes by Paul Auster",
            "isPartOf": {
                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website"
            },
            "mainEntity": {
                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/little-by-little/paul-auster/#itemlist"
            },
            "primaryImageOfPage": {
                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/368/paul-auster-351_hotel-room_most-lives-vanish-a-person-dies-and-litt_70566.jpg"
            },
            "description": "5 Little by little quotes by Paul Auster. Plus more from Paul Auster and more Little by little sayings from other authors.",
            "breadcrumb": {
                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/little-by-little/paul-auster/#breadcrumb"
            }
        },
        {
            "@type": "BreadcrumbList",
            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/little-by-little/paul-auster/#breadcrumb",
            "itemListElement": [
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 1,
                    "name": "Home",
                    "item": "https://sms4smile.com/"
                },
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 2,
                    "name": "Quotes",
                    "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/"
                },
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 3,
                    "name": "Topics",
                    "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/categories/"
                },
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 4,
                    "name": "Little By Little",
                    "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/little-by-little/"
                },
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 5,
                    "name": "Paul Auster",
                    "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/little-by-little/paul-auster/"
                }
            ]
        },
        {
            "@type": "WebSite",
            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website",
            "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes",
            "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/",
            "publisher": {
                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization"
            }
        },
        {
            "@type": "Organization",
            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization",
            "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes",
            "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/",
            "logo": {
                "@type": "ImageObject",
                "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png",
                "width": 512,
                "height": 512
            }
        }
    ]
}
```
