I was 16 years old, attending boarding school, and I loved Pride and Prejudice. From the opening pages, I loved it. And I will say in my class, not one but two boys told me that I reminded them of Lizzy Bennet. I didn't realize it at the time but this was the nicest thing that any male would ever say to me. This was as good as it got.

Curtis Sittenfeld

Categorized in : School Boys Pride

Perhaps this is how you know you're doing the thing you're intended to: No matter how slow or how slight your progress, you never feel that it's a waste of time.

Curtis Sittenfeld

progress waste matter

Being raised in an unstable household makes you understand that the world doesn't exist to accommodate you, which... is something a lot of people struggle to understand well into their adulthood. It makes you realize how quickly a situation can shift, how danger really is everywhere. But crises when the occur, do not catch you off guard; you have never believed you lived under a shelter of some essential benevolence. And an unstable childhood makes you appreciate calmness and not crave excitement.

Curtis Sittenfeld

appreciate struggle people

I always worried someone would notice me, and then when no one did, I felt lonely.

Curtis Sittenfeld

notice-me worried lonely

I thought, if I write a book that is not a retelling of Pride and Prejudice, it's not going to mean that I will not get any criticism. I might as well write the book that I want to write.

Curtis Sittenfeld

writing mean book

We have to make mistakes, its how we learn compassion for others

Curtis Sittenfeld

understanding compassion mistake

Probably I, like a lot of people, became a writer in imitation of or in homage to the books I enjoyed. When you're so captivated by something, you think, could I do that? Hmm, let me try

Curtis Sittenfeld

writing book thinking

And I am pretty sure that's the point of reading fiction -- so someone else can say in a way you never would have something you recognize immediately.

Curtis Sittenfeld

reading way fiction

To be a person who sees a political ad on television and takes the statements in it as fact, how can you exist in this world? How is it you're not robbed daily by charlatans who knock at your door?

Curtis Sittenfeld

political doors television

Perhaps fiction has, for me, served a similar purpose--what is a narrative arc if not the imposition of order on disparate events?--and perhaps it is my avid reading that has been my faith all along.

Curtis Sittenfeld

avid reading order

We all make mistakes, don't we? But if you can't forgive yourself, you'll always be an exile in your own life.

Curtis Sittenfeld

forgive-yourself forgiving mistake

I think there is still pressure to marry. I think there is still pressure to have children. If you're middle or upper class, those pressures exist at a later age now.

Curtis Sittenfeld

age children thinking

Anyone who's really interested in anything spends time alone.

Curtis Sittenfeld

alone-time spend-time

... nothing broke my heart like the slow death of a shared joke that had once seemed genuinely funny.

Curtis Sittenfeld

broke jokes heart

When you are a high school girl, there is nothing more miraculous than a high school boy.

Curtis Sittenfeld

girl boys school

Obviously the bar is much higher now for a behavior to be scandalous. Social media has really changed the way people live. It's not a new impulse; it's just being enacted in a new way.

Curtis Sittenfeld

social-media behavior people

She really does like him, she likes lying next to him, she wants to be around him; when you get down to it, can you say that about many people?

Curtis Sittenfeld

doe lying people

I feel like a lot of life is distasteful and embarrassing. And you just push through it. You fix what you can, and you let time pass.

Curtis Sittenfeld

embarrassing time-passes life-is

I do think I was trying to entertain the reader more than I was trying to purge myself.

Curtis Sittenfeld

reader trying thinking

I feel like people who criticize authors for being self-promotional fail to recognize that a lot of times their ability to continue writing hinges on sales and recognition. Some of it is for fun, some of it is for ego, but a lot of it is just writers trying to ensure longevity to their career.

Curtis Sittenfeld

writing fun people

I feel like if you read something, and it makes you so curious about a topic that you then go read something else, that's exciting.

Curtis Sittenfeld

topics curious exciting