Patrick Dewitt Quotes

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Last Updated on May 30, 2021

Hardest
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Nov 07, 2020

The hardest thing in the world for a writer is to amass a readership. So many good books come out, and so many good books disappear.

I Am
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Nov 07, 2020

I am a homebody, something that lends itself to my profession.

Home
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Nov 07, 2020

The question about my Canadianness comes up a lot, and I'm never quite sure what to say about it. I've carved a life out for myself in Oregon, and it feels like home, not because it's the States but because that's where my friends are and where my son is.

Nov 07, 2020

I wrote for so many years in a bubble, the way everyone does, and there were large swaths of time where you think you're doing this for nothing. An audience is crucial, a back and forth with the invisible readers.

Ever
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Nov 07, 2020

I have a paranoia that 'Ablutions' is the best thing I'll ever do.

Funny
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Nov 07, 2020

I was intentionally curbing the impulse to be funny and hiding the ability. I wrote any number of very serious attempts at poems, short stories, novels - horrible. At a certain point, I recognized that it was fun to write dialogue that had a degree of lightness and humor.

Me
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Nov 07, 2020

Some deeper part of me wants to write comical dialogue; I'd be foolish to not follow that impulse. Now I recognize that if there's energy to a section of work, you go where the energy is. It's a living thing, and you just follow it.

Myself
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Nov 07, 2020

I'm either enjoying myself or I'm not. And if I'm not enjoying myself, something's gone terribly wrong.

Nov 07, 2020

When your protagonist bores you, you're in trouble.

Nov 07, 2020

One of the nice things about writing is you can take essentially painful things in your life and turn them into something that might be useful, or at least entertaining, to somebody else.

Good
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Nov 07, 2020

All of my close friends are emotional train wrecks. This is what makes our lives interesting - constantly doubting ourselves, worrying, wondering if we've made a mistake. Could we have done better? Are we good people? Are we bad people?

Nov 07, 2020

If you're not riddled with doubt, you've probably done something wrong.

Luck
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Nov 07, 2020

The theme of luck comes up a lot. It's something I thought about before, why some people are lucky and some people aren't lucky. It seems like some people you meet can sort of cultivate luck, and I've always been fascinated by that.

Books
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Nov 07, 2020

It's healthy to have interests besides books.

Home
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Nov 07, 2020

The nice thing about writing at home is that it's almost as though I'm doing it already. I get out of bed thinking of my work, and I don't have to go anywhere to do it.

Design
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Nov 07, 2020

When you're 8 years old, and you've become subconsciously familiar with the layout and design of Black Sparrow books, and you know the difference between Miles Davis and John Coltrane, something is bound to stick.

Live
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Nov 07, 2020

More and more, I find myself turning away from everything relating to contemporary society. I don't know how healthy it is, but I am creating a very private bubble that I live in.

Know
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Nov 07, 2020

I know a lot of people who use the Internet really wisely. It enriches their lives in some way.

Life
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Nov 07, 2020

I've fallen in love in my life a few times. It's the most exciting part of being alive - that I've experienced, anyway.

Bored
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Nov 07, 2020

After 'The Sisters Brothers,' I tried to write a contemporary story dealing with an investment adviser in New York City who moves to Paris. I did all this research, but after about a year and any number of pages written, I was bored stiff.

Good
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Nov 07, 2020

I was reading my son some fables; it made for good nighttime reading. These stories were very vivid and very strange and occasionally bizarrely violent. It was a very free landscape.

Go
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Nov 07, 2020

Often the starting point for characters, for me, is finding a little, most minor detail, and I'll go from there.

I Am
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Nov 07, 2020

I am increasingly unimpressed by works of art that require a college degree to understand. I think that art should be for everyone. And people should be moved by it.

Make
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Nov 07, 2020

I don't necessarily want to make people stomp and clap. I simply want to engage people.

New
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Nov 07, 2020

Whenever we changed schools, we had to make a new set of friends. At the time, of course, I hated it. But looking back now, I'm really glad I did, because it forces independence on you.

Me
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Nov 07, 2020

The impetus for 'The Sisters Brothers' was it occurred to me that there was no neurosis in westerns, or there's a minimal amount of it.

Living
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Nov 07, 2020

By the time I left the bar, I was 30. I was a dishwasher. They call it a bar-back, but essentially, I washed dishes for a living. I had no high-school diploma, I had no agent, and my literary successes were non-existent... but it was the only thing I ever wanted to do, so I did feel trapped.

Plan
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Nov 07, 2020

I had no plan to write a western novel, and when I realized it was happening, I was pretty surprised by it. But you have to go with what feels right.

Rough
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Nov 07, 2020

I was halfway through a rough draft of 'The Sisters Brothers' when it came time to start the 'Terri' adaptation.

Nov 07, 2020

I haven't read hardly any Westerns, to tell you the truth.

Historical
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Nov 07, 2020

My instinct is to write under the cloak of an opaque historical setting.

Go
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Nov 07, 2020

All the books I was reading as a teenager were about individuals having adventures. So I thought that was what writers were supposed to do: to go out on the road.

Nov 07, 2020

When you meet someone you love, whether or not they love you back, something occurs in you that makes you want to improve yourself.

Job
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Nov 07, 2020

After school, I got a job in a shop in Hollywood and shared an apartment with a friend. I promptly lost my job and got evicted from my apartment, and that happened several times.

Feel
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Nov 07, 2020

As a reader I want to be present and entertained. I don't want to be taught lessons, and I don't want to be spoken down to. I want to be treated as a peer and to be made to feel welcome.

Life
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Nov 07, 2020

A lot of authors, judging by their list, will put anything out that they finish... That's the worst model I've heard of in my life. It's just idiotic. Why wouldn't you just wait for the good ones?

First
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Nov 07, 2020

My first book didn't even have a Canadian publisher. And that upset me, because I so wanted a readership up there.

Giving
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Nov 07, 2020

Bernie Madoff is probably more nuanced then I'm giving him credit for, but I just couldn't get under his skin.

Forget
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Nov 07, 2020

Especially if you're endeavouring daily to write your own books, you read with a degree of - well, it's hard to forget you're a writer when you're reading.

Liar
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Nov 07, 2020

Lies can be wonderful things, and when a lie is told artfully, if it's done with a degree of craftsmanship, I can't help but admire the liar.

Just
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Nov 07, 2020

I felt like love has been underrepresented - unironic love, just actually really falling in love.

Happiness
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Nov 07, 2020

I think of myself as somebody who, in a moment-to-moment way, I'm quite happy. But I think I am a bit doubtful and wary of true happiness, and, like a lot of my friends, there's been a good degree of self-sabotage.

Good
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Nov 07, 2020

Love is dangerous; it's not something to be trifled with. As good as it feels on the way in, it feels that much worse on the way out.

Good
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Nov 07, 2020

I don't consider Los Angeles home anymore; ultimately, it was pretty negative, but I did spend my formative years in the Valley and all around L.A. proper. Through my teenage years and into my young adulthood, up until the age of 30, I spent a good amount of time there.

More
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Nov 07, 2020

Humorous writing is often thought of as substandard in comparison to work with a more dramatic or tragic intent. I don't know what to say to this except that I disagree wholeheartedly.

Feel
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Nov 07, 2020

I wouldn't want to write a biography of anyone. I'd feel too inhibited by the facts and too much pressure to do the subject's life justice.

Locked
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Nov 07, 2020

Unfunny people should be locked up, the key tossed into a smelter.

Family
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Nov 07, 2020

Many's the dead author whose body of work has been marred by overzealous publishers or family members. If this happens to me, I vow to seek out the responsible parties and haunt them to the point of death.

Nov 07, 2020

The initial spark, your affection for the characters, all those things can disappear. It's a perilous thing.

Like
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Nov 07, 2020

The reason I like Portland is the idea of going to a supermarket and knowing there's no way to be recognized. L.A. is so social.

Day
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Nov 07, 2020

I've always felt so fortunate to have writing to turn to every day. I'm obsessed with it.

Many
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Nov 07, 2020

'The Sisters Brothers' has endeared so many prize juries because the Western format has more of a broad appeal and is familiar to readers.

Become
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Nov 07, 2020

I'm not an enormous proponent of plot as a reader. It's about other things; my reading has become specialized over the years.

Men
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Nov 07, 2020

'The Sisters Brothers' started out as a little bit of dialogue between these two men who became Eli and Charlie Sisters.

More
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Nov 07, 2020

A lot of my favourite books - I should say, not much happens in the books! It's much more about the points of view of the author more than anything else.

Project
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Nov 07, 2020

The idea is this: It's important to upset one's work habits, to topple the cart for each project.

Quality
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Nov 07, 2020

If I were to continue to work in an established mode, it stands to reason the work would be limited by this - that it would never surpass the prior work in quality.

Nov 07, 2020

I heard somewhere that whenever you write a book, people will ask you One Question about it over and over. And while I'm no expert in these matters, this is proving to be true. My first book dealt with a not-that-pleasant degenerate type, and the One Question was, 'Is this an autobiographical story?'

Ideas
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Nov 07, 2020

I carry a small spiral notebook with me at all times and have been doing this for many years. There's a shoe box in my closet filled with these notebooks, each riddled with notes and impressions, ideas, schemes, and soup recipes.

Idea
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Nov 07, 2020

Working in a bar was a horrific idea for me.

Outside
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Nov 07, 2020

I kept trying to write these books that were sort of outside of my realm, and I kept failing.

Nov 07, 2020

I haven't read a lot of Westerns. But I wrote a Western. The influences were all cinematic.

Great
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Nov 07, 2020

I'm never doing anything by rote. I'm only on thin ice, and I think that that's a good place to be. I feel like when you push yourself like that, the rewards can be pretty great.

Life
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Nov 07, 2020

At the age of seventeen, I decided I would spend my life writing fiction. I didn't know what this entailed, exactly - a room, I supposed. A room and books and paper and solitude.

Bad Days
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Nov 07, 2020

Every industry has slack times, and everyone has bad days at work.

Death
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Nov 07, 2020

I understand the desire to write and read about the death of publishing. It's a perversely and universally appealing topic.

I Am
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Nov 07, 2020

I am a bit prudish, I think. It's hard for me to write about sex, and I don't really care to read about it, either.

People
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Nov 07, 2020

Looking around, I saw so many unhappy adults, people who loathed their jobs, and I didn't want to be one of them.

Look
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Nov 07, 2020

Certain writers look down their noses at plot, and I think I might have been one of them until I tried it.

Myself
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Nov 07, 2020

I come by writing dialogue fairly naturally, I've got a chatty family; I'm a bit of a voyeur, and if I'm ever in a public place, I automatically find myself listening.

Mind
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Nov 07, 2020

The question of likability is a bit of a puzzler for me. You know, I don't write people with likability in mind. It's more whether or not I find them compelling.

Interesting
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Nov 07, 2020

I don't know that happy people are interesting to write about - or to read about.

Know
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Nov 07, 2020

I don't know that I'd call myself an optimist.

Happy
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Nov 07, 2020

My interest in words and literature is always changing. And every day of work is different, and it doesn't feel laborious in the way that, say, washing dishes did. I'm quite happy to be doing what I'm doing, and I feel very lucky.

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