Anecdotes are factoids of questionable provenance, burnished to a high gloss, often set in gilded venues and populated with familiar names as background atmosphere, purged of ambiguity in the interest of keeping the narrative flowing smoothly. John Gregory Dunne More Quotes by John Gregory Dunne More Quotes From John Gregory Dunne I’ve always thought a novelist only has one character and that is himself or herself. John Gregory Dunne novelists character Violence is the way stupid people try to level the playing field. John Gregory Dunne stupid trying people New York is at once cosmopolitan and parochial, a compendium of sentimental certainties. It is in fact the most sentimental of the world's great cities - in its self-congratulation a kind of San Francisco of the East. John Gregory Dunne congratulations new-york self Writing is manual labor of the mind: a job, like laying pipe. John Gregory Dunne writing jobs art The world is divided up into two kinds of people - those who look at their body waste in the toilet bowl, and those who don't. John Gregory Dunne two people looks There are two types of people ... the scrutinizers and the scrutinized John Gregory Dunne type two people The point of a notebook is to jumpstart the mind. John Gregory Dunne jumpstart notebook mind I started all over again on page 1, circling the 262 pages like a vulture looking for live flesh to scavenge. John Gregory Dunne vulture pages flesh The narrative was too constricted; it was like a fetus strangling on its own umbilical cord. John Gregory Dunne umbilical-cord fetus literature Because one has written other books does not mean the next becomes any easier. John Gregory Dunne doe mean book Novels do take charge of the writer, and the writer is basically a kind of sheepdog just trying to keep things on track. John Gregory Dunne track writing trying The eleventh commandment of a motion picture negotiation: Thou shalt not take less than thy last deal. John Gregory Dunne strategy negotiation lasts The professional guts a book through - in full knowledge that what he is doing is not very good. Not to work is to exhibit a failure of nerve. John Gregory Dunne nerves work book The self-image of many contemporary sportswriters seems to depend on maintaining that were it not for sports, athletes would be pumping gas, if they were not sticking up the gas station. John Gregory Dunne self-image depend up sports Unlike Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods, Jackie Robinson never tried to convert himself into an acceptable black man. John Gregory Dunne tiger never man black What is astonishing about the social history of the Vietnam war is not how many people avoided it, but how many could not and did not. John Gregory Dunne how war history people All life is inherently dangerous. But beyond that, Los Angeles is just a wonderful place to be. John Gregory Dunne beyond place dangerous life In sports, the confluence of the 1989 Oakland vs. San Francisco World Series and the Loma Prieta earthquake notwithstanding, the earth rarely moves. John Gregory Dunne earthquake earth sports world I liked Los Angeles for odd reasons. For one, there was no sense of community. You were really left to your own resources, spending this inordinate amount of time alone in a balloon of an automobile. I liked that a lot. John Gregory Dunne alone you community time I got 'The Red White and Blue' out of journalism. It puts you in touch with the world. John Gregory Dunne you red blue world
