My writing became more and more minimalist. In the end, I couldn't write at all. For seven or eight years, I hardly wrote. But then I had a revelation. What if I did the opposite? What if, when a sentence or a scene was bad, I expanded it, and poured in more and more? After I started to do that, I became free in my writing.

Karl Ove Knausgard

My intention throughout has been to write, to create literature, and to be able to look people in the eye after I'd done it - the people I'd written about.

Karl Ove Knausgard

Form is, in a way, death. A novelist's obligation is to break free from the form, even though he knows that this will also be seen as artificial and distanced from life.

Karl Ove Knausgard

I'm giving away my family's story. Who owns the family's story? I don't. But you could turn it around and ask, 'Who is to deny me to write my family's story?' I have hurt people, but I don't think in a dangerous way. But you can't tell.

Karl Ove Knausgard

I am happy because I am no longer an author.

Karl Ove Knausgard

I do think readers should respect my privacy, but I don't get angry when I get personal questions, because I understand why.

Karl Ove Knausgard

When I was younger, I wondered if it was possible to be a good person and a writer.

Karl Ove Knausgard

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

When I started out on 'Min Kamp', I was so extremely frustrated over my life and my writing. I wanted to write something majestic and grand, something like 'Hamlet' or 'Moby Dick,' but found myself with this small life - looking after kids, changing diapers, quarreling with my wife, unable to write anything, really.

Karl Ove Knausgard

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

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

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

I spent six years after my first novel and five years after my second without getting into a new book.

Karl Ove Knausgard

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

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

Tarjei Vesaas has written the best Norwegian novel ever, 'The Birds' - it is absolutely wonderful: the prose is so simple and so subtle, and the story is so moving that it would have been counted amongst the great classics from the last century if it had been written in one of the major languages.

Karl Ove Knausgard

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

I have never been interested in presenting myself.

Karl Ove Knausgard

The notion of what is public and what is private has been dissolved. My children see documentaries; they see Instagram. Everyone is very open: it has become less taboo to expose lives.

Karl Ove Knausgard

When I wrote my fictional novels, they always had a starting point of something real. Those images that are not real are exactly the same strength and power of the real ones, and the line between them is completely blurred.

Karl Ove Knausgard

Karl Ove Knausgard Quotes

My intention throughout has been to write, to create literature, and to be able to look people in the eye after I'd done it - the people I'd written about.

Form is, in a way, death. A novelist's obligation is to break free from the form, even though he knows that this will also be seen as artificial and distanced from life.

I'm giving away my family's story. Who owns the family's story? I don't. But you could turn it around and ask, 'Who is to deny me to write my family's story?' I have hurt people, but I don't think in a dangerous way. But you can't tell.

I am happy because I am no longer an author.

I do think readers should respect my privacy, but I don't get angry when I get personal questions, because I understand why.

When I was younger, I wondered if it was possible to be a good person and a writer.

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.

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.

In 'Min Kamp,' I wanted to see how far it was possible to take realism before it would be impossible to read.

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.

I spent six years after my first novel and five years after my second without getting into a new book.

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.

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.

Tarjei Vesaas has written the best Norwegian novel ever, 'The Birds' - it is absolutely wonderful: the prose is so simple and so subtle, and the story is so moving that it would have been counted amongst the great classics from the last century if it had been written in one of the major languages.

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.

I have never been interested in presenting myself.

The notion of what is public and what is private has been dissolved. My children see documentaries; they see Instagram. Everyone is very open: it has become less taboo to expose lives.

When I wrote my fictional novels, they always had a starting point of something real. Those images that are not real are exactly the same strength and power of the real ones, and the line between them is completely blurred.