- Experience
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- Nov 07, 2020
Book Quotes
Why books work the way they do.
This page highlights what books can do that film can't, including slower pacing and quiet stretches, alongside a reminder that some things simply translate poorly to screen. For a companion collection, see Books.
- Last Updated on May 30, 2021
- Hands
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- Nov 07, 2020
I'll read any anthologies or collection I can get my hands on. If I find a book mentioned in 'Publisher's Weekly,' and it looks like it will be dark, I'll track it down.
- Old
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- Nov 07, 2020
I do reread, kind of obsessively, partly for the surprise of how the same book reads at a different point in life, and partly to have the sense of returning to an old friend.
- Me
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- Nov 07, 2020
I don't think there was a particular book that made me want to write. They all did. I always wanted to write.
- Law
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- Nov 07, 2020
'Pnin' by Vladimir Nabokov, which is a literally small book, fit right in my common law book. I would sit in class and read it.
- Only
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- Nov 07, 2020
I'd really like to write a book about Timothy McVeigh, but it would only work if he cooperated.
- Like
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- Nov 07, 2020
I like seeing my physical progress through a volume, particularly if it's a big book.
- Nov 07, 2020
'The Sun Also Rises' by Ernest Hemingway is my favorite book. You feel manly reading it.
- Born
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- Nov 07, 2020
I read '1984' at a precocious age, like 8, and when I did the math, I realized that Julia, Winston Smith's lover, was born the same year I was, 1957. I read that book over and over again with the 1960s as a backdrop: anti-war and anti-bomb protests and this general pervasive sense of doom.
- Own
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- Nov 07, 2020
Every writer hopes his or her book will be its own thing.
- Purpose
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- Nov 07, 2020
No book that is written for an external purpose is going to be a passionately felt book for the writer or the reader. I don't see the point in doing that.
- Experience
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- Nov 07, 2020
I cannot read on a Kindle. I love the physical experience of holding a book, cracking it open, and the process of making the right half weigh less than the left half. I only read hardcover books because I like the resistance and the presence on a bookshelf.
- Go
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- Nov 07, 2020
When I write a book, I don't have an idea of what I'm doing. I just go where it leads.
- Like
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- Nov 07, 2020
It feels like my books come true. I write these things, and then they kind of end up happening. I wasn't divorced, for example, when I wrote a book about divorce.
- Always
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- Nov 07, 2020
The process is different for every book, but there are similarities. I always draw from the inside out. I don't plot them ahead of time, and I'm always surprised by things that happen in my books.
- Plan
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- Nov 07, 2020