Nicholson Baker Quotes

A collection of quotes by Nicholson Baker.

Nicholson Baker is an American writer and essayist, known for his unique style and attention to detail. Born in 1957, he has authored several acclaimed works such as "The Mezzanine," "Vox," and "The Anthologist." Baker often explores everyday minutiae and delves into the intricacies of human experience. His writing is characterized by a strong focus on language, memory, and the ordinary moments that shape our lives. With his insightful observations and meticulous prose, Nicholson Baker has established himself as a notable figure in contemporary literature.

So I really began as a failed poet - although when I first w

So I really began as a failed poet - although when I first wanted to be a writer, I learned to write prose by reading poetry.

Nicholson Baker

Poetry

When I really want to be soothed and reminded of why people

When I really want to be soothed and reminded of why people bother to fiddle with sentences, I often read poetry.

Nicholson Baker

Poetry

The force of truth that a statement imparts, then, its promi

The force of truth that a statement imparts, then, its prominence among the hordes of recorded observations that I may optionally apply to my own life, depends, in addition to the sense that it is argumentatively defensible, on the sense that someone like me, and someone I like, whose voice is audible and who is at least notionally in the same room with me, does or can possibly hold it to be compellingly true.

Nicholson Baker

Sympathy

In my case, adulthood itself was not an advance, although it

In my case, adulthood itself was not an advance, although it was a useful waymark.

Nicholson Baker

Maturity

Footnotes are the finer-suckered surfaces that allow testicu

Footnotes are the finer-suckered surfaces that allow testicular paragraphs to hold fast to the wider reality of the library.

Nicholson Baker

Reading

Friends, both the imaginary ones you build for yourself out

Friends, both the imaginary ones you build for yourself out of phrases taken from a living writer, or real ones from college, and relatives, despite all the waste of ceremony and fakery and the fact that out of an hour of conversation you may have only five minutes in which the old entente reappears, are the only real means for foreign ideas to enter your brain.

Nicholson Baker

Friends

Until a friend or relative has applied a particular proverb

Until a friend or relative has applied a particular proverb to your own life, or until you've watched him apply the proverb to his own life, it has no power to sway you.

Nicholson Baker

Proverbial Wisdom

From my music training, I knew that, some Spanish rhythms ap

From my music training, I knew that, some Spanish rhythms apart, 5/4 is a time signature used only in the modern era. Holst's Mars from the Planets is 5/4. But if you speak lines of poetry in that pattern you just end up hitting the off-beats. It's only when you add a rest - a sixth beat - that it sounds as it surely should sound.

Nicholson Baker

Poetry

I think I am done with Wikipedia for the time being. But I h

I think I am done with Wikipedia for the time being. But I have a secret hope. Someone recently proposed a Wikimorgue - a bin of broken dreams where all rejects could still be read, as long as they weren't libelous or otherwise illegal.

Nicholson Baker

Dreams

Wikipedia is just an incredible thing. It is fact-encircling

Wikipedia is just an incredible thing. It is fact-encirclingly huge, and it is idiosyncratic, careful, messy, funny, shocking and full of simmering controversies - and it is free, and it is fast.

Nicholson Baker

Funny