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All autobiography is storytelling; all writing is autobiography.

- J. M. Coetzee
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Author:
J. M. Coetzee
Tags:
Autobiography
Storytelling
Writing
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Elizabeth, Lady C, claims to be writing at the limits of language. Would it not be insulting to her if I were diligently to follow after her, explaining what she means but is not smart enough to say?

As for September 11, let us not too easily grant the Americans possession of that date on the calendar. Like May 1 or July 14 or December 25, September 11 may seem full of significance to some people, while to other people it is just another day.

There are works of literature whose influence is strong but indirect because it is mediated through the whole of the culture rather than immediately through imitation. Wordsworth is the case that comes to mind.

I say that I represent this movement because my intellectual allegiances are clearly European, not African.

The idea of writer as sage is pretty much dead today. I would certainly feel very uncomfortable in the role.

If it is indeed impossible - or at least very difficult - to inhabit the consciousness of an animal, then in writing about animals there is a temptation to project upon them feelings and thoughts that may belong only to our own human mind and heart.

That has always seemed to me one of the stranger aspects of literary fame: you prove your competence as a writer and an inventor of stories, and then people clamour for you to make speeches and tell them what you think about the world.

I read a great deal as a child. A lot of children go through a phase of reading in a literally voracious way. It is their primary imaginative activity. Maybe that's an experience which is not so common any more with the presence of television in every home.

I tend to resist invitations to interpret my own fiction.

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All autobiography is storytelling; all writing is autobiography.

All autobiography is storytelling; all writing is autobiography.

All autobiography is storytelling; all writing is autobiography.

All autobiography is storytelling; all writing is autobiography.

All autobiography is storytelling; all writing is autobiography.

All autobiography is storytelling; all writing is autobiography.

All autobiography is storytelling; all writing is autobiography.

All autobiography is storytelling; all writing is autobiography.

All autobiography is storytelling; all writing is autobiography.

All autobiography is storytelling; all writing is autobiography.

All autobiography is storytelling; all writing is autobiography.

All autobiography is storytelling; all writing is autobiography.

All autobiography is storytelling; all writing is autobiography.

All autobiography is storytelling; all writing is autobiography.

All autobiography is storytelling; all writing is autobiography.