It was a wrong number that started it, the telephone ringing three times in the dead of night, and the voice on the other end asking for someone he was not.
Meaning of the quote
The quote describes how a simple wrong phone call in the middle of the night can start a whole chain of events. Someone calling for the wrong person on the phone leads to an unexpected situation or problem. This suggests that even small, seemingly insignificant incidents can sometimes have bigger consequences or lead to unexpected outcomes that we don't anticipate.
About Paul Auster
Paul Auster was a renowned American writer who authored numerous acclaimed works, including the iconic ‘The New York Trilogy’ and the Pulitzer Prize-nominated ‘4 3 2 1’. His books have been translated into over 40 languages, cementing his status as a global literary icon.
More quotes from Paul Auster
I don’t think that you can be prescriptive about anything, I mean, life is too complicated. Maybe there are novels where the author has not in the least thought about it in terms of film, which can be turned into good films.
American novelist, poet, essayist, screenwriter
You have to protect it too, you can’t let just any stupid person take it and do something demoralizing with it. At the same time, I don’t believe in being so rigid about controlling what happens either.
American novelist, poet, essayist, screenwriter
Everything can change at any moment, suddenly and forever.
American novelist, poet, essayist, screenwriter
There’s hope for everyone. That’s what makes the world go round.
American novelist, poet, essayist, screenwriter
I was always interested in French poetry sort of as a sideline to my own work, I was translating contemporary French poets. That kind of spilled out into translation as a way to earn money, pay for food and put bread on the table.
American novelist, poet, essayist, screenwriter
It was a wrong number that started it, the telephone ringing three times in the dead of night, and the voice on the other end asking for someone he was not.
American novelist, poet, essayist, screenwriter
All I wanted to do was write – at the time, poems, and prose, too. I guess my ambition was simply to make money however I could to keep myself going in some modest way, and I didn’t need much, I was unmarried at the time, no children.
American novelist, poet, essayist, screenwriter
It’s extremely difficult to get these jobs because you can’t get a job on a ship unless you have seaman’s paper’s, and you can’t get seaman’s papers unless you have a job on a ship. There had to be a way to break through the circle, and he was the one who arranged it for me.
American novelist, poet, essayist, screenwriter
You see, the interesting thing about books, as opposed, say, to films, is that it’s always just one person encountering the book, it’s not an audience, it’s one to one.
American novelist, poet, essayist, screenwriter
I don’t know if she should worry too much, I mean some of our greatest writers have had movies made of their books, lots of Hemingway novels were turned into movies, it doesn’t hurt the book.
American novelist, poet, essayist, screenwriter
I guess I wanted to leave America for awhile. It wasn’t that I wanted to become an expatriate, or just never come back, I needed some breathing room. I’d already been translating French poetry, I’d been to Paris once before and liked it very much, and so I just went.
American novelist, poet, essayist, screenwriter
If you’re not ready for everything, you’re not ready for anything.
American novelist, poet, essayist, screenwriter
You can’t put your feet on the ground until you’ve touched the sky.
American novelist, poet, essayist, screenwriter
We construct a narrative for ourselves, and that’s the thread that we follow from one day to the next. People who disintegrate as personalities are the ones who lose that thread.
American novelist, poet, essayist, screenwriter