39 Quotes by Nathalie Sarraute

Literature is always trying to show other parts of this immense universe in which we live. It’s endless. I’m sure there will be other writers who will discover new worlds.

One can’t write for all readers. A poet cannot write for people who don’t like poetry.

It’s the duty of all novelists, all painters, all musicians, all people who try to make art move: to look for something they feel authentically, without paying attention to styles.

We’re swallowed up only when we are willing for it to happen.

I don’t for a minute think that Hitler is like Joan of Arc. But I think that at that deep level of tropisms, Hitler or Stalin must have experienced the same tropisms as anyone else.

All psychological research is completely barred by the interpretations of the psychoanalysts. Everything happens in the unconscious, and I don’t know what this unconscious is.

It’s a question of not copying the masters, to look for something, good or bad, for oneself. To enter this liberated state of mind, one cannot copy the others.

The reader has to be creative when he’s reading. He has to try to make the thing alive. A good reader has to do a certain amount of work when he is reading.

One can’t write without having read – you have to read before beginning to write – and universities offer a very good opportunity to read.