V. S. Naipaul

“The world is what it is; men who are nothing, who allow themselves to become nothing, have no place in it.”

“All development is decay. The more you develop, the more you decay.”

“To be a writer is to have a sense of purpose.”

“One isn't born one's self. One is born with a mass of expectations, a mass of other people's ideas — and you have to work through it all.”

“Life doesn't have a neat beginning and a tidy end; life is always going on.”

“My life is short. I can't listen to banality.”

“The only lies for which we are truly punished are those we tell ourselves.”

“Most people are not really free. They are confined by the niche in the world that they carve out for themselves.”

“Small things start us in new ways of thinking.”

“I read a book one day and my whole life was changed.”

“The world is always in movement.”

“Men need history; it helps them to have an idea of who they are.”

“That is the way of the world. The <strong class="highlight">weakstrong> are the problem, not the strong.”

“The past is living in us and with us, and is present in all we do.”

“I have a great rage for order, and have never been comfortable with disorder.”

“The writer's life is a sacred life. He must be responsible in the end to his own conscience.”

“If a writer doesn't generate hostility, he is dead.”

“Writing is a way of ordering the world.”

“Home is, I suppose, just a child's idea. A house at night, and a lamp in the house. A place to feel safe.”

“An autobiography can only be written by a man who has lived a worthy life.”