Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
As creative people, we should be really conscious of being of service in our work, being as generous as we can.
In its current incarnation in my life touring is a lot of airports and hotels and car services and only OK food.
I was fat because my parents were a little fat themselves at that point in their lives, and I ate what they ate.
I feel a bigger sense of fulfillment when writing a novel, and short stories are more about instant gratification.
My laptop broke and because of the storm I could not get a new one. And so I've been promoting my book via iPhone.
You can quit smoking, and never have to have a cigarette again to survive. But with food, it is a daily challenge.
I was fat because I lived in the Midwest in the 1970s, and everyone was a little fat then and only getting fatter.
Sadly, e-mail has triggered the decline of the handwritten note; I have seen its near-disappearance in my lifetime.
It's the differences in people that help you realize who you are. Even if we silently pass each other on the street.
I think it's nearly impossible to write something fictional without having it be about yourself in some way or another.
I have very distinct memories about growing up as part of what was then a very small Jewish community in Buffalo Grove, IL.
For years I drove cross-country, back and forth a dozen times, sometimes on book tour, sometimes just to get lost and found.
Social media can connect you with other people in so many wonderful ways - but it can also make you really sick of yourself.
Some journal writers choose to password-protect their site, which is either an incredibly responsible act or a paranoid one.
I know the bestseller 'Gone Girl' doesn't need an ounce of support from me, but that book was as sharp and witty as they come.
Why e-mail a full emotional statement when, instead, you can text a totally insignificant and ambiguous half-considered phrase?
People are branded as either 'fat' or 'skinny' from an early age. You sort of never shake it, even if you end up losing weight.
My Twitter feed is probably my biggest resource of news. Other people scour the web so I do not have to, and I thank them for it.
It's good to try stuff. I wrote a book that I threw away, and I think I just wrote it so I could try stuff in it and not be scared
My grandmother died when my mother was just 11 years old, and consequently, my mother never learned how to cook particularly well.
For years I'd thought my color was black: deep, dark, thoughtful, mysterious. Black, you can hide behind. But now I know it is red.
My last book was speculative. I just don't quite know what I am doing. But I'll get there. I have a list of things I would love to write.
When we are young - or even 32 - we often say 'yes' to everything because we're worried that we won't know what we'll like if we don't try it.
I've just always written, and always considered myself a writer. I wrote my first story when I was five. There was nothing else I wanted to do or be.
Do you often find yourself uttering the phrase, 'I feel like I should go?' You do not need to go. You are busy that night. You are busy every night, forever.
Your family is unavoidable. You cannot escape them or trade them in for another family. You also can't change them... but you can change your response to them.
I know I have a problem with semi-colon abuse and have written page-long sentences. Nobody needs to be reading page-long sentences, at least not written by me.
I am not one of those people who string their exes along. Instead, I run and hide: under the covers, behind my computer screen, on opposite coasts of the country.
In addition to public housing, South Williamsburg is home to shabby artists' lofts like mine, apartments of Hasidic Jews, and one extremely tall, high-priced condo.
I just think structure can make a book feel so much bigger. It's the architecture. You could use flimsy materials if you wanted to, even, but it could still feel big.
I don't know much about any of the Hasidim because the men won't talk to me because I'm a woman, and the women won't talk to me because, while I am Jewish, I'm not Hasidic.
I've been told by people who write historical novels that you just sort of write the emotional truth first, the story at the core, and then you go back and research it at the end.
The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry is a breezy, big-hearted treat, especially if you've ever wondered about the inner workings of America's national treasures--neighborhood bookstores.
I did get in a few fights in school. Kids threw around anti-Semitic slurs, not knowing necessarily what they meant. It was probably just something they picked up somewhere, as kids do.
I remember being banned from other houses as a younger child during the winter holiday season; I was the only one who didn't believe in Santa Claus, and I was ruining everyone's Christmas.
Young adult novels don't shy away from the discussion of weight issues, and 'Blubber,' the tale of an overweight, not-so-sympathetic fifth-grader bullied by her peers, is a refreshing take.
I actually didn't grow up in a household that loved Chinese food particularly, and it's not really my go-to food or anything... We were more a pizza family, being from the Chicago area and all.
In the past, I was sometimes put in this women's lit category, and I was never really sure that was the appropriate place for me - although I certainly recognize it can be helpful and correct for other people.
I always tell people this when they're looking for an agent - they should love your work. You are entitled to work with someone who believes in you. Why do business with someone who is ambivalent about you and your art?
The very best parts of me go into my writing, it is the best version of myself, and I don't think it's hubristic to believe that that's worth something, worth someone else's time. It's the most I have to offer the world.
There are a lot of great things about food, but it's something that's an eternal struggle in our contemporary society, where and how food is made, where it's coming from, how much to consume. There are so many layers to it.
It should be said upfront that I totally dig people who work in bookstores and libraries. They love books, and I love books, and that is all I really need to know. If they are friendly to me, then we are clearly soul mates.
I didn't go to graduate school, where all the important writers seemed to be getting their start. I didn't pursue getting published in literary magazines. I didn't even send out countless pitch letters and manuscripts to agents.
Writers have a job to do. Editors do, too. You have to stand ground and cede ground on a case by case basis. When an editor tells me something isn't working and I still believe in it, I tend to think it just isn't working hard enough.
I don't think there's any topic a writer should feel afraid of tackling just because it has already been discussed. If you feel you have a fresh perspective and an understanding of a certain emotional truth, it's always worth writing.
You write a book, and after 50 pages you think it's about one thing, and then you write another hundred and you realize it's about something else, and then by the time you're done, you can look back and say, 'Oh, this is what it's about.'
I check my phone first thing when I wake up in the morning. I usually take it up with me to bed so it's on the floor next to the bed, although not actually in bed with me, because I really do not want to be the person who sleeps with their phone.
No offense to Bushwick, where all my neighbors greeted me on the street and there is a growing arts community and a curious beauty to its industrial zone, but Bushwick is no Williamsburg, even if the real estate agents would have you believe it is.
I do not mourn the death of the printed letter in a snobby, East Coast, patrician way - 'Where have our manners gone?' - but because I love objects, I love paper, and I love something that I can hold to my chest for a moment. Still, I bear no grudge against the e-mail form itself.
I wish I had the luxury of time to read and write like grad students do. That sounds pretty awesome. When I was writing my first book one of my friends was going to grad school at the same time and I heard a lot of stories about drinking, too. I feel like everyone was having affairs.