Matthew Specktor Professions : Novelist Born : December 21, 1966 Browse All Authors Top 54 quotes by Matthew Specktor I've always found too that somewhere in whatever you've just written lies the seed of what you're going to write next. Matthew Specktor next writing lying Even though I think writers can sometimes thrive from being misread. It can give them something to push off of. Matthew Specktor sometimes giving thinking Much to my surprise, there's a sense for people in the cable industry that fiction writers might actually be good at script writing. You can write dialogue! Matthew Specktor writing people fiction Everybody says, TV is great, the writer has so much power. I'm still trying to convince myself that's true. When do the writers ever have power? Ever? They don't. Even in the book industry. Matthew Specktor tvs trying book I don't want to say that having power is overrated, but powerlessness can give rise to a different kind of authority, and that's the kind of authority that writes books. Matthew Specktor writing giving book Great books are written from a sense that there is nothing to lose. Matthew Specktor nothing-to-lose written book I think having power ingrains people with a conservatism. There's a tendency to hedge one's bets. (Which explains a lot, actually, about why the movie business is the way it is, and why the publishing industry is too.) Matthew Specktor people way thinking I don't feel like I'm self-conscious about what's next. I don't care. I know what it's like to be ignored, and I know what it's like not to be. Matthew Specktor next care self I'm going to write what I feel like writing, which is a great place to be. But it can be hard to get there. It's so easy to get stricken with one kind of self-consciousness or another. Matthew Specktor kind self writing Sacrificing one's life on the altar of literature is in some ways like sacrificing a goat to some malicious spirit. It's not always a humane or necessary decision. Matthew Specktor sacrifice decision literature We go to literature because it shows us some set of humane values. It is showing us how to live. Matthew Specktor humane literature shows There's a kind of perverseness or betrayal in that idea that art is somehow superior to life. Or that it's more important to write well than it is to take out the garbage. Matthew Specktor betrayal writing art I thought, writing is everything, it's so much more important than this or that. If only I could give that young man a stern talking to. Having a child changes things quite a bit. Matthew Specktor writing men children I think writers can gain a lot of vitality from being misread. Matthew Specktor vitality gains thinking Similar Authors Adam Johnson novelist Ivan Goncharov novelist Binnie Kirshenbaum novelist Bruce Jay Friedman novelist Buchi Emecheta novelist Bryce Courtenay novelist All Authors