“Every writer wants to be believed. But every writer knows he is spurious; every fiction writer would rather be credible than authentic.”
As quoted in "Master of the Secret World: John le Carré on Deception, Storytelling and American Hubris" by Andrew Ross, in Salon (21 October 1996); also in Conversations with John le Carré (2004) edited by Matthew Joseph Bruccoli and Judith Baughman, p. 140
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John le Carré 42
British novelist and spy 1931Related quotes
"The Secret Miracle"; Variant: Like all writers, he measured the achievements of others by what they had accomplished, asking of them that they measure him by what he envisaged or planned.
Source: Ficciones (1944)
“What I really wanted was every kind of life, and the writer’s life seemed the most inclusive.”
In Joy Still Felt (1980), pp. 286-287
General sources
“I was the embodiment of every writer's worst fear: a cliché.”
Source: Gone Girl
“The writer is a spiritual anarchist, as in the depth of his soul every man is.”
The William Saroyan Reader (1958)
Context: The writer is a spiritual anarchist, as in the depth of his soul every man is. He is discontented with everything and everybody. The writer is everybody's best friend and only true enemy — the good and great enemy. He neither walks with the multitude nor cheers with them. The writer who is a writer is a rebel who never stops.
“In every man's writings, the character of the writer must lie recorded.”
Goethe (1828).
1820s, Critical and Miscellaneous Essays (1827–1855)
The Rome Press Conference (23 July 2001)