
"Ngô Thanh Vân: 'Tôi không còn nghĩ đến chuyện chồng con'" in Thanh Niên (10 March 2019) https://thanhnien.vn/van-hoa/ngo-thanh-van-toi-khong-con-nghi-den-chuyen-chong-con-1058998.html
Source: The Ocean at the End of the Lane (2013), Chapter 14 (p. 207)
"Ngô Thanh Vân: 'Tôi không còn nghĩ đến chuyện chồng con'" in Thanh Niên (10 March 2019) https://thanhnien.vn/van-hoa/ngo-thanh-van-toi-khong-con-nghi-den-chuyen-chong-con-1058998.html
Preface (December 1960) to The Autobiography of Eleanor Roosevelt (1961), p. xvi; the last line was originally used in the initial edition of her autobiography: This Is My Story (1937)
“Writing — I exist only for that. It’s the most important thing in my life.”
1970s-, The Captains, the Kings, and Taylor Caldwell (1978)
Context: About half of my published novels were written before I was published. So I didn’t write a book every two years, as some people think.
Writing — I exist only for that. It’s the most important thing in my life. It’s not apart from me. I have no other interests, except cooking. I don’t belong to any organizations, clubs — I don’t go to lunches. This is my life, the most important thing — far more important than anything else I do. It has to be that way, otherwise you’re just a hobbyist.
Now, a painter needs only to know the technique of his painting, and he has to have a tremendous emotional response to it. Musicians, sculptors — the same way. But they don’t have to know about everything. A writer does.<!--
He has to do a tremendous amount of reading, too. I’d rather go without food, sleep, even cigarettes, than go without books. I read at least three of four books a week, plus all kinds of publications, some very weird. I like to know what’s going on, what people think. I read the far left, the far right, and in between, to see what people are doing and saying.