- Situation
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- Nov 07, 2020
Me Quotes
Quotes rooted in the first person.
These are quotes centered on 'me' - childhood memories tied to family traditions, like a grandfather's holiday reading passed down for decades, alongside admissions about how humor can double as self-protection. Several speak to the solitary nature of creative work, something also explored in Life Quotes.
- Last Updated on May 30, 2021
- Always
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- Nov 07, 2020
I'd be lying if I said that any part of writing is easy for me, but I have always found that setting comes more naturally to me than, say, writing action scenes.
- Look
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- Nov 07, 2020
I really look up to writers who are able to write compressed, single-scene stories, where everything happens in a kitchen. But I just can't think that way. For me it would be impossible to write a story where I didn't know what someone's parents did and what their grandparents did and who they used to date.
- Like
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- Nov 07, 2020
I've always loved short stories. Even before I was a writer, I was reading short stories - there were certain writers where I just felt like they could do in a short story what so many writers needed a whole novel to do, and that was really inspiring to me.
- Always
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- Nov 07, 2020
I always tell my students to seek out other writers as models, and though it took me years to heed my own advice, it really was life-altering when I found writers who wrote long stories, full of back story and side plots and sub-histories.
- Experience
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- Nov 07, 2020
The idea that we should write towards the unknown aspects of our experience was totally groundbreaking for me. It gave me the license I needed to try to write outside myself. This attitude has deeply informed my approach to fiction, emboldening me to write characters with voices or situations that are vastly different from my own.
- Feel
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- Nov 07, 2020
When I'm writing a story, which takes me a year or more, I can feel my character living with me - they're responding to whatever funny, familial, or social situation I'm in, and I think about their responses constantly.
- People
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- Nov 07, 2020
Being humble got me very far when I went to L.A., because it was in stark contrast to this town of people who were so cutthroat.
- Fear
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- Nov 07, 2020
My father is a psychologist who wouldn't let fear stop us. Particularly with me, he was hell bent on requiring us and teaching us to walk through fear. I don't know if I would've become someone who taps into their ability to push through those tough situations without him.
- Opportunity
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- Nov 07, 2020
In terms of my own life and the mistakes I made and the struggles I had, I'm grateful for them. It taught me more than success and opportunity ever did.
- Funny
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- Nov 07, 2020
Objectifying is kind of a funny thing. Art is objectification, all art, because you're taking someone and making them into an object. But people can also talk back more to you when you're sketching them. They can look at you and say, 'Oh man, you got me wrong.'
- Time
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- Nov 07, 2020
I'm still getting used to the idea that people out in the world are reading my books. Every time I get a 'fan letter,' I am thrilled. But when people tell me that they're from the south or western Kentucky, and they say, 'I know exactly what you mean!' That's awesome.
- Been
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- Nov 07, 2020
And the funny thing is, I've always been an optimist - it's practically a congenital disorder with me.
- Friendship
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- Nov 07, 2020
The most important thing for me is to have real friendship between Egyptians and Americans.
- King
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- Nov 07, 2020