Pasi Ilmari Jääskeläinen

Are writers the torchbearers of humanity? It__ a romantic idea, but it__ complete rubbish. We writers are the crocodiles in the river.

Even the best cook can__ make chicken soup out of his own feet. There aren__ so terribly many ingredients in anyone__ life, less meat than there is on a sparrow. The average person could come up with at most two good novels. Many who think very highly of themselves can__ manage more than a couple of anecdotes.

I would be happy to take credit for all of the wonderful experiences I describe in my novels, but my life isn__ quite that rich. Unfortunately we authors are sometimes forced to use other people__ lives, too.___ounds rather beastly,_ the journalist laughed. __r maybe writers are like vultures. Some people feel we journalists are._ He mimicked a bird of prey and grinned.

Her works are said to be too far from reality to be considered real literature. __hy doesn__ she write about life?_ the people of Rabbit Back ask.

Amateur detectives in fiction had always annoyed Ella. They were so unrealistic. She didn__ intend to be the Rabbit Back version of Miss Marple or a cheap Baker Street knock-off, and she really didn__ like the idea of making the tabloids. That was no way to advance an academic career. She didn__ want to be an instrument of justice. She just wanted to do some literary research and earn a living.

Later she came to realise that under one reality there__ always another. And another one under that.

Do you want to know how to write novels? I__l tell you the secret: start on page one and keep going, in order, until you come to the last page. Then stop.

Everybody comes to the library naked. That's why they come here - to dress themselves in books.

Ella had asked the writer how it felt to see her own works published. Seläntö had smiled sweetly at her and whispered, __ou know what? It makes you understand why a dog eats its own vomit.

Besides, I don__ understand people who read a book for pleasure and then ruminate on the book__ ideas. Paper was invented so we wouldn__ have to keep all those thoughts in our heads.