Quotes by Thinking Inevitably we start by thinking that if our work is any good, we'll get money. It's as we would if you started up a business or if you work in another profession. Alice Mattison professionget-moneythinking We still have so many cultures in which people are imprisoned and whipped and killed for writing what they think. Alice Mattison writingpeoplethinking Censorship is all around us, I don't think it's innate. Alice Mattison innatecensorshipthinking This is true in other fields, too, that a legal aid lawyer gets a whole lot less money than a Hollywood lawyer who handles the estates of celebrities. Maybe the legal aid lawyer is doing something better, though, and maybe they're happier. It's not a completely unheard of idea, but I do think we have to remind ourselves at times to look for satisfaction in other ways. Alice Mattison hollywoodideasthinking Being part of a community of writers is huge. I really think that's why people go to MFA programs. Alice Mattison communitypeoplethinking Every once in a while someone says, 'You can't really learn anything, if you're really a writer then you wouldn't need to do it.' But I think what people need is the sense of not being alone. They go to MFA programs to be part of a community of people who care, and then you start caring about your friend who is trying to edit a magazine and your other friend who is stuck in the middle of her poem. There you have all kinds of things to worry about besides your own success. Alice Mattison caringpeoplethinking I think people feel for a long time that they ought to know how to write a novel in two drafts. Alice Mattison writingtwothinking I think you have to remember that writing is hard; my first editor used to say that to me. Alice Mattison editorswritingthinking Sometimes people want to know how to write a story from the point of view of a murderer and make her sympathetic. I think the answer is that you start by having her look for her car keys, because everybody knows what it's like. Alice Mattison keyswritingthinking I don't think a white person can write accurately and convincingly about what black people experience of oppression. Alice Mattison whitewritingthinking I think the difference between writing as someone and writing for them is that when you write for someone, you take on a kind of political burden or message, which I don't think we have the right to do. Alice Mattison differenceswritingthinking I think we need to develop the courage to write from the viewpoint of people who may seem quite different from ourselves, who might have a different sexual orientation or a different race or a different ethnicity. Alice Mattison racewritingthinking I think that inevitably, the trouble our characters go through is a kind of metaphor for what's happening in ourselves. Alice Mattison kindcharacterthinking I think a day in your life on which nothing bad happens may be a wonderful day, but it probably isn't going to be the basis of a story. Alice Mattison storiesmaythinking For some people, it's very easy to be spontaneous and they can pour out the most wonderful stuff. But it's really hard to exert control over it, to think, 'Well, this could be different. This could go in the opposite order, there could be more here and less there.' For other people, it's much easier to have rules and a methodology, but much harder to let loose and allow their feelings to come pouring out on the page. They're more shy or they're just more distant from their emotions. I think everybody starts with one or the other. Alice Mattison oppositesorderthinking I get to a certain point, and I think in a novel it's about the third draft, when I want other eyes on it. Alice Mattison eyewantthinking I actually think it's sometimes easier for the control freaks to let loose. Alice Mattison freaksometimesthinking Fiction that intends to be something other than entertainment has a certain obligation, I think, to convince the reader, every time, that what is to be evoked - character, experience, idea - is worthy of his or her consideration, intellectual energy, close attention. Alice McDermott intellectualcharacterthinking It's not possible to advise a young writer because every young writer is so different. You might say, "Read," but a writer can read too much and be paralyzed. Or, "Don't read, don't think, just write," and the result could be a mountain of drivel. If you're going to be a writer you'll probably take a lot of wrong turns and then one day just end up writing something you have to write, then getting it better and better just because you want it to be better, and even when you get old and think, "There must be something else people do," you won't be able to quit. Alice Munro writingpeoplethinking That's something I think is growing on me as I get older: happy endings. Alice Munro growingwritingthinking«133134135136137138139140141142143»
