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I always like to write three versions of a book. The first is always agony and chaos; no one could understand it. With the second you get the shape, it's more or less all right. I write both of those in longhand. The third draft I type out with two fingers: it's for refining of meaning, additions and subtractions. I think my novels usually begin with
characters
; you have them floating about in your head and it may be years before they get together in a situation.
Characters
interest me more than situations.
Patrick White
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I am interested in detail. I enjoy decoration. By accumulating this mass of detail you throw light on things in a longer sense: in the long run it all adds up. It creates a texture — how shall I put it — a background, a period, which makes everything you write that much more convincing. Of course, all artists are terrible egoists. Unconsciously you are largely writing about yourself. I could never write anything factual; I only have confidence in myself when I am another
character
. All the
characters
in my books are myself, but they are a kind of disguise.
Patrick White
Quote of the day
War is not its own end, except in some catastrophic slide into absolute damnation. It's peace that's wanted. Some better peace than the one you started with.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Patrick White
Creative Commons
Born:
May 28, 1912
Died:
September 30, 1990
(aged 78)
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