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" A masterpiece of fiction is an original world and as such is not likely to fit the world of the reader. "

Vladimir Nabokov

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" It is a short walk from the hallelujah to the hoot. "

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" I have often noticed that after I had bestowed on the characters of my novels some treasured item of my past, it would pine away in the artificial world where I had so abruptly placed it. "

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" I cannot conceive how anybody in his right mind should go to a psychoanalyst. "

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" The cradle rocks above an abyss, and common sense tells us that our existence is but a brief crack of light between two eternities of darkness. "

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" Genius is an African who dreams up snow. "

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" All my stories are webs of style and none seems at first blush to contain much kinetic matter. For me style is matter. "

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" The pages are still blank, but there is a miraculous feeling of the words being there, written in invisible ink and clamoring to become visible. "

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" A writer should have the precision of a poet and the imagination of a scientist. "

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