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Was it the forgetfulness of old age or personal incapacity that made the man able to say please but not thank you?

Yann Martel

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Yann Martel
Age: 61
Born: 1963
Born: June 25
Author
Novelist
Prosaist
Screenwriter
Writer
Age
Able
Made
Men
Incapacity
Forgetfulness
Thank
Please
Personal

More quotes by Yann Martel

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I can't live for more than four years outside of Canada. I'm Canadian, so ultimately that is my reference point.
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A movie tends to box you in, at least as far as the aesthetics. You have an incredibly kinetic experience, which is the joy of cinema.
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I'm not a consumer. I hate buying clothes. I don't have a mobile. I just don't need things. I don't like things.
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Why do people move? What makes them uproot and leave everything they've known for a great unknown beyond the horizon? ... The answer is the same the world over: people move in the hope of a better life.
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I couldn't get Him out of my head. Still can't. I spent three solid days thinking about Him. The more He bothered me, the less I coul forget Him. And the more I learned about Him, the less I wanted to leave Him.
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The worst pair of opposites is boredom and terror. Sometimes your life is a pendulum swing from one to the other.
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Don’t you bully me with your politeness!
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Books, like people, can't be reduced to the cost of the materials with which they were made. Books, like people, become unique and precious once you get to know them.
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Gloom is but a shadow of a cloud passing by
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I meet a number of people as a writer of fiction who say Oh, I don't read much fiction, as if the history of the United States, just as an example, isn't an exercise in storytelling and myth-making.
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It is a vast country, so that inspires you. It's also the greatest hotel on earth: It welcomes people from everywhere. It's a good country to write from because in many ways Canada is the world.
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A house is a compressed territory where our basic needs can be fulfilled close by and safely.
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Art is a gift: you create and then you give away. How readers receive that gift is their business. If they hate it, that’s their response to it. Others respond by liking it. Either way, that is their interaction with the book, which is no longer mine.
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Despair was a heavy blackness that let no light in or out. It was a hell beyond expression. I thank God it always passed.
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He's a shy man. Life has taught him not to show off what is most precious to him.
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Isn't telling about something-using words, English or Japanese-already something of an invention? Isn't just looking upon this world already something of an invention?
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You may not believe in life, but I don't believe in death. Move on!
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A work of art works because it is true, not because it is real.
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The reason death sticks so closely to life isn’t biological necessity – it’s envy.
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Work, work, work, but what mark do we leave, what point do we make? People who are too beholden to work become like erasers: as things move forward, they leave in their wake no trace of themselves.
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