I can’t speak for other writers, but I write to create something that is better than myself, I think that’s the deepest motivation, and it is so beca… - Karl Ove Knausgård

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I can’t speak for other writers, but I write to create something that is better than myself, I think that’s the deepest motivation, and it is so because I’m full of self-loathing and shame. Writing doesn’t make me a better person, nor a wiser and happier one, but the writing, the text, the novel, is a creation of something outside of the self, an object, kind of neutralized by the objectivity of literature and form; the temper, the voice, the style; all in it is carefully constructed and controlled. This is writing for me: a cold hand on a warm forehead.

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About Karl Ove Knausgård

Karl Ove Knausgård (born 6 December 1968) is a Norwegian author.

Biography information from Wikiquote

Also Known As

Alternative Names: Knausgaard, Karl Ove
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Additional quotes by Karl Ove Knausgård

Geir gave me the chance to look at life and understand it, Linda gave me the chance to live it. In the first instance I became visible to myself, in the second I vanished. That’s the difference between friendship and love.

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