“In the case of a writer like Musil writing is often a graceful act, like a silvery fish leaping.”
p 37
Wonderful, Wonderful Times (1990)
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Elfriede Jelinek 50
Austrian writer 1946Related quotes
“A writer will do anything to avoid the act of writing.”
Source: On Writing Well (Fifth Edition, orig. pub. 1976), Chapter 4, Style, p. 21.

1960s, The Quest for Peace and Justice (1964)
Context: There is a sort of poverty of the spirit which stands in glaring contrast to our scientific and technological abundance. The richer we have become materially, the poorer we have become morally and spiritually. We have learned to fly the air like birds and swim the sea like fish, but we have not learned the simple art of living together as brothers.

As quoted in "Reality bites" by Simon Hattenstone in The Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,3604,784535,00.html (2 September 2002)

“Men like women who write, even though they don't say so. A writer is a foreign country.”