I'd rather be a born-once hog than a born-again Christian any day. Carolyn Chute More Quotes by Carolyn Chute More Quotes From Carolyn Chute I feel like a lot of time my writing is like having about twenty boxes of Christmas decorations. But no tree. You're going, Where do I put this? Then they go, Okay, you can have a tree, but we'll blindfold you and you gotta cut it down with a spoon. Carolyn Chute cutting writing tree That’s the way we see life: your community is your survival. And if you live in a small community like this, even the people you hate you have as friends. Carolyn Chute community hate people If I can be writing, I can take a certain amount of control when so much around me is upsetting. Carolyn Chute upset certain writing I feel at times that I'm making up these little people and I've lost my mind. Carolyn Chute mind littles people The writing process is sort of like when you've got no electricity and you've gotten up in the middle of the night to find the bathroom, feeling your way along in the dark. I can't hardly tell you what I do because I really don't know. Carolyn Chute dark writing night Writing is like meditation or going into an ESP trance, or prayer. Like dreaming. You are tapping into your unconscious. To be fully conscious and alert, with life banging and popping and cuckooing all around, you are not going to find your way to your subconscious, which is a place of complete submission. Carolyn Chute prayer dream writing Every time I think I know what's right and wrong, I end up being wrong. All I want to do is explore. I want to see what people would do. I say, 'What would this person do in this situation?' and I write it down. I'm not writing manifestos of my political views. Carolyn Chute think situation time people There's no writer's block; there's only distraction. Carolyn Chute writer only distraction block Grave silence is far more powerful than the same old voices yapping away. Carolyn Chute old more powerful silence Whenever I write, I write what I find to be the way people are. I never use any symbolism at all, but if you write as true to life as you possibly can, people will see symbolism. They'll all see different symbolism, but they're apt to because you can see it in life. Carolyn Chute you life people way Today, somewhere in America, more foreclosures. More auctions. Another farmer plots his own death. And another. There is an art to making your death by combine look like an accident. Carolyn Chute look today death art Spend as much time as you can in silence. Look at the way the sun paints the ground gold. Carolyn Chute you silence sun time When people do come face to face with each other as human beings, they begin to understand each other better. Carolyn Chute face better understand people Sometimes a manuscript is like bread dough. You have to abuse it. Carolyn Chute like you bread sometimes When I write, I just let my characters go, the way I let life go. Carolyn Chute just go life way I love people, but I don't do so well in a system. We're poor, and we lead a very different kind of life. We depend on other people so much. Carolyn Chute poor love life people When I'm not writing, I do a lot of research reading on the shape of civilization. Fiction can be a lot of different things... but I feel like it's my job to write about the way things are. Carolyn Chute feel job research reading I like starting projects in January. That's the best time to start something. It's so inward. Carolyn Chute something best start time Today's world is very cruel. Carolyn Chute cruel very today world I never wanted to be a writer. I still don't. Carolyn Chute writer still never wanted
