"I can’t say precisely. I don’t think anyone really knows how a story takes shape. When it’s done you try to explain how it happened, but every effort, at least in my case, is insufficient. There is a before, made up of fragments of memory, and an after, when the story begins. But before and after, I have to admit, are useful only in answering your question now in an intelligible way."
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On being asked how she begins a new work in “Elena Ferrante, Art of Fiction No. 228” in The Paris Review (Spring 2015)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Elena_Ferrante
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Elena Ferrante
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