I have told people who ask for lectures that I have no lecture to give. And that is true. It might seem strange that a man who has dealt in words and emotions and ideas for nearly fifty years shouldn't have a few to spare, so to speak. But everything of value about me is in my books. Whatever extra there is in me at any given moment isn't fully formed. I am hardly aware of it; it awaits the next book. It will — with luck — come to me during the actual writing, and it will take me by surprise. That element of surprise is what I look for when I am writing.


"Two Worlds," Nobel lecture (7 December 2001)

Internet Archive V.S. Naipaul - Nobel Lecture: Two Worlds

V. S. Naipaul Quotes

I have told people who ask for lectures that I have no lecture to give. And that is true. It might seem strange that a man who has dealt in words and ...

I have told people who ask for lectures that I have no lecture to give. And that is true. It might seem strange that a man who has dealt in words and ...

I have told people who ask for lectures that I have no lecture to give. And that is true. It might seem strange that a man who has dealt in words and ...

I have told people who ask for lectures that I have no lecture to give. And that is true. It might seem strange that a man who has dealt in words and ...