Top 12 Quotes by Philip Sington

One thing I knew about the novelist’s task: when in doubt, write; when empty, write; when afraid, write. Nothing is more impenetrable than the blank page. The blank page is the void, the absence of sense and feeling,

One thing I knew about the novelist’s task: when in doubt, write; when empty, write; when afraid, write. Nothing is more impenetrable than the blank page. The blank page is the void, the absence of sense and feeling, the white light of literary death.

Philip Sington

Writing, Light, White

I have found that in fiction one is freer to speak the truth, if only because in fiction the truth is not expected or required. You may easily disguise it, so that it is only recognized much later, when the story and the characters have faded into darkness.

Philip Sington

Character, Darkness, Fiction

One of the joys of being in love is that it clarifies your priorities. Complication arises from not knowing what you want.

Philip Sington

Being In Love, Love Is, Knowing

I wanted her body and soul, but body first.

Philip Sington

Soul, Body, Firsts

Desire is an appetite, quickly sated. Longing is a wound, an opening in the heart or the spirit. Whatever the cause, whatever the duration, it almost always leaves a scar.

Philip Sington

Heart, Desire, Duration

Philip Sington (2012). “The Valley of Unknowing”, p.62, Random House

We drank our coffee the Russian way. That is to say we had vodka before it and vodka afterwards.

Philip Sington

Coffee, Way, Vodka

All writers are insecure, the male ones especially. It's well known. Why else would they spend so much time on make-believe? They're only happy in their imaginary worlds, because that's where they're in charge - where they're God. Did you know that Hemingway's mother dressed him as a girl until he was six years old?" I was not offended by Claudia's glib psychological theory. Like many glib psychological theories, it struck me as fundamentally correct.

Philip Sington

Girl, Mother, Believe

The future can always wait so long as the here-and-now is rapturous.

Philip Sington

Long, Waiting, Here And Now

And then they would watch her closely as the dark, coagulated masses took form before her eyes, became flesh and bone, became gradually human. For all their show of reluctance, she had a sense that they enjoyed introducing her to these horrors, as seducers took pleasure in the corruption of innocence.

Philip Sington

Eye, Dark, Watches

Philip Sington (2011). “The Einstein Girl”, p.7, Random House

The railway was part scalpel, part movie camera, slicing the city open, parading its inner workings at fifty frames per second. It was on the S-Bahn that she felt least abandoned, as if the act of travelling turned back the clock, and brought her nearer to the future she had lost.

Philip Sington

Cities, Cameras, Fifty