Quote collection
647 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"My idea of everything going smoothly on an airplane is (a) that I not die in a slow-motion fiery crash or get stabbed to death by terrorists and (b) that none of the other passengers try to talk to me. All conversation should end at the moment the wheels leave the ground."
"These are pictures of the people in my family where we look like the most awkward and desperate folk you ever saw, poster children for the human condition."
"We want a sense that an important character, like a narrator, is reliable. We want to believe that a character is not playing ages or being coy or being manipulative, but is telling the truth to the best of his or her ability...We do not wish to be crudely manipulated...We want to be massaged by a masseur, not whapped by a carpet beater."
"Toddlers can make you feel as if you have violated some archaic law in their personal Koran and you should die, infidel."
"I am drawn to people that are not going to shy away from the very dark, scary stuff of the human condition and in a lot of cases people need alcohol or drugs to create poetry and poetic pose that can take you so far out there where you are still able to recognize yourself and then to bring you back home where you're not the same person you were when you left."
"I think that is why we stay close to our families, no matter how neurotic the members, how deeply annoying or dull- because when people have seen you at your worst, you don’t have to put on the mask as much."
"For me, being a writer is not an altered state. It's very ponderous, and very - it's like being a shoemaker."
"And my fear of failure has been lifelong and deep. If you are what you do- and I think my parents may have accidentally given me this idea- and you do poorly, what then? It’s over; you’re wiped out. All those prophecies you heard in the dark have come true, and people can see the real you, see what a schmendrick you are, what a fraud."
"What if we gave fifty percent of our discretionary budget to the world’s poor and then counted on the moral power of that action to protect us?"
"Jealousy is such a direct attack on whatever measure of confidence you’ve been able to muster. But if you continue to write, you are probably going to have to deal with it, because some wonderful, dazzling successes are going to happen for some of the most awful, angry, undeserving writers you know-people who are, in other words, not you."
"Every woman's path is difficult, and many mothers were as equipped to raise children as wire monkey mothers. I say that without judgment: It is, sadly, true. An unhealthy mother's love is withering."
"Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird."
"Writing is how I communicate my deepest beliefs, and what I hope are helpful observations about our dual citizenship, as children of God, as regular old mixed-up, worried, flawed, precious human beings."
"Greasy food is so comforting when you are hungover."
"There is nothing more touching to me then a family picture where everyone is trying to look his or her best, but you can see what a mess they all really are."
"What an incredible drug fear is."
"Right foot, left foot, right foot, breathe."
"What people somehow forgot to mention when we were children was that we need to make messes in order to find out who we are and why we are here."
"That thing you had to force yourself to do-the actual act of writing-turns out to be the best part."
"I think we're all pretty crazy on this bus. I'm not sure I know anyone who's got all the dots on his or her dice."