Accept that, like many men, you have a streak of the homoerotic in you. Why would you, why would anyone, want to be that straight? Michael Cunningham More Quotes by Michael Cunningham More Quotes From Michael Cunningham But there are still the hours, aren't there? One and then another, and you get through that one and then, my god, there's another. Michael Cunningham hours stills We’d hoped for love of a different kind, love that knew and forgave our human frailty but did not miniaturize our grander ideas of ourselves. Michael Cunningham different kind ideas I am beginning to understand the true difference between youth and age. Young people have time to make plans and think of new ideas. Older people need their whole energy to keep up with what’s already been set in motion. Michael Cunningham differences ideas thinking She thinks how much more space a being occupies in life than it does in death; how much illusion of size is contained in gestures and movements, in breathing. Dead, we are revealed in our true dimensions, and they are surprisingly modest. Michael Cunningham breathing space thinking She'd never imagined it like this-when she thought of someone (a woman like herself)losing her mind, she'd imagined shrieks and wails, hallucinations; but at that moment it had seemed clear that there was another way, far quieter; a way that was numb and hopeless, flat, so much so that an emotion as strong as sorrow would have been a relief. Michael Cunningham sorrow strong mind That is what we do. That is what people do. They stay alive for each other. Michael Cunningham staying-alive alive people I have no useful theories about love and marriage. Michael Cunningham love-and-marriage theory I revise constantly, as I go along and then again after I've finished a first draft. Few of my novels contain a single sentence that closely resembles the sentence I first set down. I just find that I have to keep zapping and zapping the English language until it starts to behave in some way that vaguely matches my intentions. Michael Cunningham language way firsts I encourage the translators of my books to take as much license as they feel that they need. This is not quite the heroic gesture it might seem, because I've learned, from working with translators over the years, that the original novel is, in a way, a translation itself. Michael Cunningham book years needs I love movies, I love television, I love narratives of all kinds. Michael Cunningham narrative movie-love television A stray fact: insects are not drawn to candle flames, they are drawn to the light on the far side of the flame, they go into the flame and sizzle to nothingness because they're so eager to get to the light on the other side. Michael Cunningham flames light facts Man," he said, "I'm not afraid of graveyards. The dead are just, you know, people who wanted the same things you and I want." "What do we want?" I asked blurrily. "Aw, man, you know," he said. "We just want, well, the same things these people wanted." "What was that?" He shrugged. "To live, I guess," he said. Michael Cunningham want men people What she wants to say has to do not only with joy but with the penetrating, constant fear that is joy's other half. Michael Cunningham half fear joy Oh, all you immigrants and visionaries, what do you hope to find here, who do you hope to become? Michael Cunningham immigrants visionaries Virginia Woolf came along in the early part of the century and essentially said through her writing, yes, big books can be written about the traditional big subjects. There is war. There is the search for God. These are all very important things. Michael Cunningham writing war book On a summer night it can be lovely to sit around outside with friends after dinner and, yes, read poetry to each other. Keats and Yeats will never let you down, but it's differently exciting to read the work of poets who are still walking around out there. Michael Cunningham lovely summer night Like my hero Virginia Woolf, I do lack confidence. I always find that the novel I'm finishing, even if it's turned out fairly well, is not the novel I had in my mind. I think a lot of writers must negotiate this, and if they don't admit it, they're not being honest. Michael Cunningham virginia hero thinking I know, speaking for myself, no matter what I'm able to do, no matter what book comes out and ends up on paper, I always had something bigger and grander in my head. Michael Cunningham paper matter book We throw our parties; we abandon our families to live alone in Canada; we struggle to write books that do not change the world, despite our gifts and our unstinting efforts, our most extravagant hopes. We live our lives, do whatever we do, and then we sleep--it's as simple and ordinary as that. A few jump out of windows or drown themselves or take pills; more die by accident; and most of us, the vast majority, are slowly devoured by some disease or, if we're very fortunate, by time itself. Michael Cunningham party struggle book Insomniacs know better than anyone how it would be to haunt a house. Michael Cunningham insomniac would-be house
