You see, a writer tries very hard to see his childhood material as it
exists. The nature of that childhood experience is very hard to
understand—it has a beginning, a distant background, very dark, and then
it has an end when a writer becomes a man. The reason why this early
material is so important is that he needs to understand it to make it
complete. It is contained, complete. After that there is trouble. You
have to depend on your intelligence, on your inner strength. Yes, the
later work rises out of this inner strength.
V.S. Naipaul, συνέντευξη στο Paris Review, 1994
