Nathalie Sarraute quotes

Nathalie Sarraute was a Russian-born lawyer and celebrated writer associated with the Nouveau Roman literary movement. Her early legal career in France was marked by both professional challenges and a growing passion for literature. She became renowned for her experimental novels, deeply influencing twentieth-century European literature. Here are 16 of her quotes:

Television has lifted the manufacture of banality out of the sphere of handicraft and placed it in that of a major industry. (Nathalie Sarraute)
It's a question of not copying the masters, to look for something, good or bad, for oneself. To enter this liberated state of mind, one cannot copy the others. View quote
Nathalie Sarraute
Suspicion is one of the morbid reactions by which an organism defends itself and seeks another equilibrium. View quote
Nathalie Sarraute
The act of writing is a kind of catharsis, a liberation, but I never really concerned myself with that. I write because it interests me. View quote
Nathalie Sarraute
One can't write without having read - you have to read before beginning to write - and universities offer a very good opportunity to read. View quote
Nathalie Sarraute
I don't admire Freud as much as some people do. Imagine Shakespeare being aware of the Oedipal complex when he wrote Hamlet. It would have been a disaster. View quote
Nathalie Sarraute
All psychological research is completely barred by the interpretations of the psychoanalysts. Everything happens in the unconscious, and I don't know what this unconscious is. View quote
Nathalie Sarraute
I have never sought the reason why I write. View quote
Nathalie Sarraute
Women have seen that they have locked themselves up with feminist writing. View quote
Nathalie Sarraute
Those who live in a world of human beings can only retrace their steps. View quote
Nathalie Sarraute
I have often heard that the novel is dead. But I see novels produced, I don't know how many a week, in France. I have the impression it's carrying along quite well. (Nathalie Sarraute)
It's the duty of all novelists, all painters, all musicians, all people who try to make art move: to look for something they feel authentically, without paying attention to styles. View quote
Nathalie Sarraute
The reader has to be creative when he's reading. He has to try to make the thing alive. A good reader has to do a certain amount of work when he is reading. View quote
Nathalie Sarraute
Literature is always trying to show other parts of this immense universe in which we live. It's endless. I'm sure there will be other writers who will discover new worlds. View quote
Nathalie Sarraute
One can't write for all readers. A poet cannot write for people who don't like poetry. View quote
Nathalie Sarraute
The novel moves like all the arts. It's transforming itself all the time. View quote
Nathalie Sarraute

Nathalie Sarraute

Occupation: Russian Lawyer
Born: July 18, 1900
Died: October 19, 1999
Quotes count: 16