I don’t know why people do not read ‘Mein Kampf’ more regularly. It tells you first-hand about all the narcissism; you see that collapse in German culture. There is no chance that anyone could become a Nazi by reading that book. Karl Ove Knausgard Read Quote
In my experience, when you’re writing, you want the truth, and you don’t want to be apologetic in any way. But there is something in writing, the complexity of it, that works against that aim. Karl Ove Knausgard Read Quote
When you use the form of a novel, and you say ‘I,’ you are also saying ‘I’ for someone else. When you say ‘you,’ you are simultaneously in your room writing and in the outside world – you are seeing and being seen seeing, and this creates something slightly strange and foreign in the self. Karl Ove Knausgard Read Quote
In ‘Min Kamp,’ I wanted to see how far it was possible to take realism before it would be impossible to read. Karl Ove Knausgard Read Quote
In 2008, when I wrote Book 1 and Book 2, the head of the publishing house suggested twelve books – one each month. For practical reasons, that didn’t work out. Karl Ove Knausgard Read Quote
When I wrote my first novel – I was nineteen – I did it very quickly. If you write fast, you feel like you’re entering something not yet familiar – a world rather than thoughts about the world. Karl Ove Knausgard Read Quote
I spent six years after my first novel and five years after my second without getting into a new book. Karl Ove Knausgard Read Quote
On the floor by my bed, there are heaps of books I want to read, books I have to read, and books I believe I need to read. Karl Ove Knausgard Read Quote
I have some friends, most of them are writers or editors, whose recommendations I trust blindly. There are some critics, too, whom I trust, but not many. Karl Ove Knausgard Read Quote
Knut Hamsun’s writing is magical. His sentences are glowing; he could write about anything and make it alive. Of contemporary writers, Thure Erik Lund is my definite favorite. Karl Ove Knausgard Read Quote
