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Nicole Krauss Quotes

Powerful Nicole Krauss for Daily Growth

About Nicole Krauss

Nicole Krauss is an acclaimed American novelist, essayist, and screenwriter, born on May 4, 1974, in Miami Beach, Florida. Growing up in a family of academics - her father was a rabbi, her mother a professor - Krauss developed an early love for literature and storytelling. This passion led her to attend Brown University, where she studied comparative literature and graduated magna cum laude. Krauss's literary career began in the late 1990s with short stories published in various magazines and anthologies. Her first novel, "Man Walks Into a Room" (2002), was well-received by critics and readers alike, earning her recognition as a talented new voice in American literature. The book follows the lives of several characters whose paths intersect in unexpected ways, exploring themes of identity, memory, and connection. In 2005, Krauss published "The History of Love," a novel that tells the story of a Holocaust survivor and a young girl who searches for a mysterious book written by her grandfather. The book was a New York Times Bestseller and received critical acclaim, including being shortlisted for the National Book Award. Krauss's most recent work is "Forest Dark" (2017), a novel that delves into themes of identity, art, and spirituality as it follows two main characters on their journeys of self-discovery in Israel and Florida. The book was longlisted for the National Book Award and won the Southern California Independent Booksellers Association's Book of the Year Award. In addition to her work as a novelist, Krauss has published essays in publications such as The New Yorker and The Guardian, and she co-wrote the screenplay for "Wes Anderson's The Grand Budapest Hotel," which was nominated for an Academy Award. Today, Krauss continues to write and teach, inspiring a new generation of storytellers with her captivating narratives and profound insights into the human experience.

Interpretations of Popular Quotes

"We have to live in such a way that when we hear the tolling of the death bell within us, its sound will make us stop and listen, not look around wondering which body they are burying."

This quote by Nicole Krauss suggests that we should live our lives mindfully, in a way that allows us to introspect when faced with the realization of mortality - symbolized by the "death bell" within us. Rather than reacting to external circumstances ("looking around wondering which body they are burying"), we should take time to reflect on our own existence and use this reflection to guide our actions and choices. Essentially, it's a call to prioritize self-awareness and introspection over distraction and superficiality in our pursuit of meaning and purpose in life.

"Love is a force more formidable than any other. It is invisible - it cannot be seen or touched, but when it has entered our lives, we immediately recognize it as the most powerful thing we have ever experienced."

The quote by Nicole Krauss suggests that love, though intangible, possesses an immense and transformative power that surpasses all other forces. Love is not something tangible or measurable, yet when it enters our lives, its impact becomes evident to us, making it a powerful and memorable experience. This powerful force has the ability to change our lives significantly and profoundly.

"In every story there's a hidden message for the reader to discover, just as in every person there is a secret waiting to be found by those who truly know them."

This quote by Nicole Krauss suggests that stories, like people, hold deeper meanings that are not immediately apparent. The author implies that these hidden messages or secrets can only be understood or discovered by those who invest time, empathy, and thought into the story or relationship. It's a reminder of the value in looking beyond surface-level understandings to uncover the true essence and significance of both stories and people.

"I think people who have written their books are the luckiest people alive, because they've brought something into the world that wasn't there before."

This quote by Nicole Krauss highlights the profound value and unique significance of authors, as they create a tangible piece of art - a book - that did not previously exist in the world. The act of writing allows ideas, stories, emotions, and perspectives to be materialized, enriching humanity's collective knowledge, sparking conversations, and inspiring future generations. Authors are considered fortunate because their work contributes to the cultural landscape and leaves a lasting legacy that transcends personal experience.

"The greatest tragedy of all would be not to die young, but to live until I became so much like everyone else that I gradually disappeared in the swarm."

This quote by Nicole Krauss suggests a desire for individuality and authenticity, fearing the possibility of blending into society and losing one's unique identity. The phrase "not to die young" implies living a life that is meaningful and impactful, rather than one filled with conformity and monotony. The "swarm" symbolizes the masses who have lost their individuality and distinctiveness in the pursuit of societal norms, thereby disappearing as unique entities. In essence, this quote speaks to the human struggle against assimilation and the preservation of personal identity amidst a conforming world.

My first novel, 'Man Walks Into a Room,' is about a man who's lost his memory and has to start a second life. On one level, it's about how we create a coherent sense of self.

- Nicole Krauss

Memory, Level, About, Coherent

I have realised just how important it is to readers to feel that fictional stories are based on reality.

- Nicole Krauss

Important, How, Based, Fictional

When the word 'nostalgia' was coined in the 18th century, it was used to describe a pathology - not so much a sense of lost time, but a severe homesickness.

- Nicole Krauss

Nostalgia, Homesickness, 18th Century

The more freedom I allow myself as a writer to wander, become lost and go into uncertain territory - and I am always trying to go to the more awkward place, the more difficult place - the more frightening it is, because I have no plan.

- Nicole Krauss

More, Always, Allow, Wander

The accolades, just like the scrapes and bruises, fade in the end, and all you're left with is your ambition.

- Nicole Krauss

In The End, Like, Your, Fade

To hike out alone in the desert; to sleep on the valley floor on a night with no moon, in the pitch black, just listening to the boom of silence: you can't imagine what that's like.

- Nicole Krauss

Listening, Imagine, Boom, Hike

I think of novels as houses. You live in them over the course of a long period, both as a reader and as a writer.

- Nicole Krauss

Think, Over, Period, Novels

I always wrote little things when I was younger. My first opus was a book of poems put down in a spiral notebook at five or six, handsomely accompanied by crayon illustrations.

- Nicole Krauss

Little Things, Always, Six, Spiral

That powers my desire to write: the sense of how quickly everything on the surface of life can be cut away and you can suddenly be inside the most inner part of the most inner life of a person. What does it feel like there, and what are the regrets and sensations and longings, and what is the music of it?

- Nicole Krauss

Regrets, Away, Cut, Powers

I am always coming up with architectural metaphors when I think about writing. But I think one of the things that draw us to literature is that it gives us this very attractive illusion that there is meaning in the world - things connect.

- Nicole Krauss

I Think, Very, About, Architectural

I used to think that if I had a choice between writing well and living well, I would choose the former. But now I think that's sheer lunacy. Writing weighs so much less, in the great cosmic equation, than living.

- Nicole Krauss

Choose, I Think, Had, Lunacy

I'm very interested in structure, how multiple stories are assembled in different ways; that is what memory does as well.

- Nicole Krauss

Memory, Very, Stories, Structure

To me, this is the singular privilege of reading literature: we are allowed to step into another's life.

- Nicole Krauss

Literature, Another, Allowed, Singular

I read like an animal. I read under the covers, I read lying in the grass, I read at the dinner table. While other people were talking to me, I read.

- Nicole Krauss

Other, Like, Read, Grass

I have always written about characters who fall somewhere in the spectrum between solitary and totally alienated.

- Nicole Krauss

Always, Solitary, About, Alienated

Getting a book published made me feel a little bit sad. I felt driven by the need to write a book, rather than the need to write. I needed to figure out what was important to me as a writer.

- Nicole Krauss

Need, Rather, Figure, Published

If the book is a mystery to its author as she's writing, inevitably it's going to be a mystery to the reader as he or she reads it.

- Nicole Krauss

Going, Author, Reader, Inevitably

I'm the opposite of someone like David Grossman, who knows how his characters walk, and how they smell. I don't allow myself to imagine what mine look like at all. My sense of them comes from the inside. They remain, by necessity, physically vague in my mind.

- Nicole Krauss

Smell, Vague, Allow, David

I take almost no notes when I write. I have one notebook - this old green leather notebook that my dad gave me a decade ago.

- Nicole Krauss

Green, Decade, Notes, Notebook

What interests me in writing a novel is taking really remote voices, characters, and stories and beginning to create some kind of web.

- Nicole Krauss

Beginning, Some, Stories, Web

You can't imagine how hard I am on myself. Nothing pummels me like my own doubts, the feeling of how far I still have to go.

- Nicole Krauss

How Far, Still, Imagine, Doubts

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