Sheila Heti Professions : Writer Born : December 25, 1976 Browse All Authors Top 59 quotes by Sheila Heti When I'm editing, I try to bring out some dramatic structure. I think it is about theater in some way; it is a little play. Sheila Heti editing play thinking It's fun to give pleasure to people. Sheila Heti fun giving people I do feel it. And I've felt it my whole life, that the supernatural has a role in the world. Sheila Heti whole-life roles world My parents are both scientists, and I was raised without god. Sheila Heti scientist raised parent It's so hard to live that one needs a support around life. We can't live without some supernatural support. Sheila Heti hard support needs Writing fiction is a good way to inhabit other minds, if not other lives. Sheila Heti mind writing fiction It has long been known to me that certain objects want you as much as you want them. These are the ones that become important, the objects that you hold dear. The others fade from your life entirely. You wanted them, but they did not want you in return. Sheila Heti important want long Somehow I had turned myself into the worst thing in the world: I was just another man who wanted to teach me something! Sheila Heti worst men world I always had a fantasy of meeting a girl who was as serious as I was. Sheila Heti fantasy girl serious I hadn't realized until this week that in [Moses'] youth he killed a man, an Egyptian, and buried him under some sandI used to worry that I wasn't enough like Jesus, but yesterday I remembered who was my king; a man who, when God addressed him and told him to lead the people out of Egypt, said, 'But I'm not a good talker! Couldn't you ask my brother instead?' So it should not be so hard to come at this life with a bit of honesty. I don't need to be great like the leader of the Christian people. I can be a bumbling, murderous coward like the King of the Jews. Sheila Heti brother christian jesus Then if he's sore with me, let him dump my ass. That will just give me more time to be a genius. Sheila Heti women genius giving He’s just another man who wants to teach me something. Sheila Heti teach want men There are certain people who do not feel like they were raised by wolves, and they are the ones who make the world tick. They are the ones who keep everything functioning so the rest of us can worry about what sort of person we should be. Sheila Heti worry people world You have to know where the funny is, and if you know where the funny is, you know everything. Sheila Heti ifs knows I think that part of the reason I like collaboration so much is because it's something unexpected coming in, and you have to stretch yourself to absorb it. Sheila Heti yourself think you unexpected I believe there's a platonic ideal for every book that is written, like there's the perfect version of the book somewhere in the ether, and my job is to find what that book is through my editing. Sheila Heti job editing believe book I saw what was wonderful about human companionship. Before that, I was quite content to be alone, to be a solitary wandering person, and I thought I always would be. Love changed that. Sheila Heti person alone thought love For me, a memoir is supposed to be understood as a representation of your life, whereas a novel is self-consciously symbolic. Sheila Heti your me understood life Trying to live the image of the life which you have in your head... it's really hard not to do that, but I do think maybe it's cheating. Sheila Heti think you life cheating I don't know what that line is between fiction and non-fiction that other people have in their minds, but to me, when I'm writing, it's just like whatever the next sentence should be is the next sentence. It's not this artificial division. Sheila Heti know me writing people Similar Authors Ihab Hassan writer Ingmar Bergman writer Isabella Bird writer Ivan E. Coyote writer Al Feldstein writer Bert Sugar writer All Authors
