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I hate libraries for the way they put stickers on things. I don't approve of folding over pages, or of writing in books. God, forget scissors - that's beyond the pale.

Jonathan Lethem

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Jonathan Lethem
Age: 60
Born: 1964
Born: February 19
Author
Essayist
Novelist
Science Fiction Writer
Writer
New York City
New York
Jonathan Allen Lethem
Harry Conklin
Hate
Approve
Book
Libraries
Pale
Writing
Library
Way
Pages
Stickers
Things
Beyond
Folding
Books
Scissors
Forget
Sticker

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I grew up with an artist father, and my parents' friends were also mainly artists or writers, so he connects what I do with his example.
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When people call something original, 9 out of 10 times they just don't know the references or original sources involved.
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The key to mostly anything is pretending your first time isn't.
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I'm gregarious with writers and never with manuscripts . . . I [like to] create the illusion of seamless perfection, so I alone know the flawed homely process along the way.
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Every book is a kind of experiment in doing something that feels impossible.
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Artists freeze themselves into these weird postures that are meant to be impressive and involving, then they fling them out into the world like Polaroids, and then they move on. And I'm stuck in this intense relationship to the Polaroid.
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I never take any notes or draw charts or make elaborate diagrams, but I hold an image of the shape of a book in my head and work from that mental hologram.
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I had an all-Fear of Music iPod, just versions of the 11 songs from the record. No other songs allowed.
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I don't have a lot of paper in my immediate work environment, except when I'm doing things like checking the godforsaken proofs.
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Teenage life - possibly adult life too is all about what you want and can’t have. And then about what you receive and misuse.
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I believe that written stories will continue to survive because they answer an essential human need. I think movies might disappear before the novel disappears, because the novel is really one of the only places in the world where two strangers can meet on terms of absolute intimacy.
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I don't want to indulge myself in the luxury of writing beautiful paragraphs just for the sake of making beautiful writing. That doesn't interest me. I want everything to be essential.
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There's never any percentage in being ahead of your time.
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I'm learning to hate the sound of my own voice.
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Writing is physical for me. I always have the sense that the words are coming out of my body, not just my mind.
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However appalling to consider, however tedious to enact, every novel requires furniture, whether it is to be named or unnamed, for the characters will be unable to remain in standing position for the duration of the story.
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It wasn't for children, seventh grade. You could read the stress of even entering the building in the postures of the teachers, the security guards. Nobody could relax in such a racial and hormonal disaster area.
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I'm a serial deconstructor of my own authority in certain areas.
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You can't be deep without a surface
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What age is a black boy when he learns he's scary?
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