Sigrid Nunez Quotes

I write to make sense of things that don't make sense to me.

We do not write in order to be understood; we write in order to understand.

As I'm writing, certain things become clear to me and certain things begin to feel right and make sense. The pieces start to fall into place.

I understand exactly what I am.

To be a writer is to connect and to play and to attempt to see clearly and understand. It astounds me regularly that feeling things deeply and writing them down is basically my job description.

I write to discover what I think. After all, the bars aren't open that early.

I write in order to find out what I truly know and how I really feel about certain things. Writing requires me to go much deeper into my thoughts and memories than conversation does. Writing provides the solitude necessary to reflect on being in this world.

I only see clearly what I remember.

Whatever you cannot understand, you cannot possess.

I write to understand as much as to be understood.

I can explain it to you but I can't understand it for you.

I like to know how I'm supposed to feel about things. Just a little clue or hint.

Many times I have written something, and after it was published, I understood what I was saying.

I write to discover what I think.

Which is why I am writing this book. To think. To understand. It just happens to be the way I'm made. I have to write things down to feel I fully comprehend them.

Before you attempt to set things right, make sure you see things right.

I think writing kind of burns out the flaming question. Sometimes it might feel like when you're living with certain paradoxes and they're unarticulated, you feel pressure to choose. I feel more comfortable living in the paradoxes that I've named and laid out, whereas when I started they might have felt like real agitations. At least I see them more clearly after having sketched them for myself and made a place to stand in relationship to them that felt okay enough to last through the course of a book.

I saw sorrow turning into clarity.

The understanding of some men is clear, that of others brilliant. The former illumines its surroundings; the latter obscures them.

There is nothing like writing to force you to think and get your thoughts straight.

The greatest ownership of all is to glance around and understand.

Insight enables you to know your own heart. Clarity enables you to accept without illusion.

As soon as a true thought has entered our mind, it gives a light which makes us see a crowd of other objects which we have never perceived before.

He who knows others is clever; He who knows himself has discernment.

The more you know yourself, the more clarity there is.