Alice McDermott Professions : Writer Born : June 27, 1953 Browse All Authors Top 47 quotes by Alice McDermott We turned onto the last landing. Going out with this guy, I thought, would involve a lot of silly laughter, some wit--the buzz of his whispered wisecracks in my ear. But there would be as well his willingness to reveal, or more his inability to conceal, that he had been silently rehearsing my name as he climbed the stairs behind me. There would be his willingness to bestow upon me the power to reassure him. He would trust me with his happiness. Alice McDermott laughter names silly The world was a cruder, more vulgar place than the one I had known. This was the language required to live in it, I supposed. Alice McDermott vulgar language world My love for the child asleep in the crib, the child's need for me, for my vigilance, had made my life valuable in a way that even the most abundantly offered love, my parents', my brother's, even Tom's, had failed to do. Love was required of me now--to be given, not merely to be sought and returned. Alice McDermott parent brother children I've always believed you go to literature to find the shared human experience, not the categorized human experience. Alice McDermott go you experience literature My own 'sentimental favorite' is always the novel I haven't yet written - I suppose that's the one I consider my 'masterpiece' as well. Alice McDermott well own always my-own The language of the Catholic Church - the liturgy, the prayer, the gospels - was in many ways my first poetry. Alice McDermott language church poetry prayer For immigrant generations especially, family is the first structure, or shelter, for a people who are in exile. Alice McDermott immigrant structure family people I was born in Brooklyn, but I never lived there. Alice McDermott i-was-born never brooklyn born I have a great fondness for the liars in my stories. Alice McDermott great fondness stories liars At the beginning of every semester, I ask my graduate students whether there is something I should read that will help me understand their work. Alice McDermott beginning understand me work I read a little bit of nonfiction and a lot of poetry. I think of poetry as my shot of whiskey when I don't have time to savor a whole bottle of wine. Alice McDermott think wine poetry time The thing that fiction can do is look from the inside out rather than from the outside in. Even memoir leaves me somewhat frustrated. I think now we need a poet to uncover what isn't on the surface. Alice McDermott inside look think me It worries me that undergrads and high school students are forced into books they aren't ready for, like Faulkner's, and then they are afraid of putting their toes in the water again. Alice McDermott me high-school water school Publishing a short story can sometimes feel like shouting into the dark... your words come out, and then nothing... but I don't think that's why I tend to write novels rather than stories. Alice McDermott words feel dark sometimes Read everything. Write all the time. And if you can do anything else that gives you equal pleasure and allows you to sleep soundly at night, do that instead. The writing life is an odd one, to say the least. Alice McDermott you sleep time life I think 'Charming Billy' ultimately is a novel about faith and what we believe in and, above all, what we choose to believe in. Alice McDermott choose think faith believe Being Irish-American myself, Irish-American material is readily at hand to me. Alice McDermott hand being myself me I know Irish-American people. I know what their homes look like. I know what they have for dinner. I know how they turn a phrase. Alice McDermott look know dinner people I think place and time for me is often a matter of convenience, something I can use to another end rather than something I'm trying to define because it's somehow fascinating to me in itself. It's more what the place can do for the larger goals I have for the work. Alice McDermott goals me work time Memory is not pure. Memories told are not pure memories; memories told are stories. The storyteller will change them. I've always been interested in that. Alice McDermott will memory change memories Similar Authors Ihab Hassan writer Ingmar Bergman writer Isabella Bird writer Ivan E. Coyote writer Al Feldstein writer Bert Sugar writer All Authors
