10 Kazuo Ishiguro Quotes for Writers and About Writing

Here are 10 Kazuo Ishiguro quotes for writers and about writing from the author of The Remains of the Day, When We Were Orphans, and Never Let Me Go. In these quotes, Ishiguro covers writing what you know, building characters, imagination, and more.

Sir Kazuo Ishiguro is a British writer who was born in Nagasaki, Japan. He's written short stories, novels, screenplays, and song lyrics. His novels include The Remains of the Day, When We Were Orphans, and Never Let Me Go.

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Ishiguro was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2017 and was knighted February 7, 2019. In his Nobel Prize interview, he said, "We live in small worlds and big worlds at the same time and we can't, you know, forget one or the other."

Here are 10 Kazuo Ishiguro quotes for writers and about writing.

"'Write about what you know' is the most stupid thing I've heard. It encourages people to write a dull autobiography. It's the reverse of firing the imagination and potential of writers."

"I'm against any kind of imagination police, whether they're coming from marketing reasons or class snobbery."

"Emotions are very important to me in a novel."

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"I used to think in terms of characters, how to develop their eccentricities and quirks. Then I realized that it's better to focus on their relationships instead, and then the characters develop naturally."

"People talk about flat versus three-dimensional characters; you can talk about relationships the same way."

"Most writers have certain things that they decide quite consciously, and other things they decide less consciously."

"I don't really like to work with literary allusions very much."

"Don't take on a creative project lightly."

"I suppose you could say there is an element of the laboratory about all fiction writing."

"I think literature can be a great thing. It can be sometimes a force for bad as well."