Fate and history have a similar feeling. They are weird mirrors to each other. Alexander Chee More Quotes by Alexander Chee More Quotes From Alexander Chee My singing voice had rescued me from the scene I was in at school - I was an unpopular, bookish kid who had an indeterminate ethnic background. I became fascinated with women sopranos because they had a future that I didn't as a singer. Alexander Chee mefuturewomensinging I had been in a professional boys' choir, and as a boy soprano, you're aware that your voice has an expiration date. Alexander Chee professionalboyyouvoice I quickly learned that as a fiction writer, you need the sort of details a historian or a biographer would find extraneous or useful to provide context via a footnote. Alexander Chee findneedyoudetails As a young writer, I questioned the idea that I had to write fiction in a world where I could write my own ethnicity only and nothing else. 'Fach' to me was a little like that. As a biracial person, that's an inherently unstable identity. Alexander Chee memy-ownidentityworld At first, teaching was more or less a straightforward way of making a living and having access to institutional resources while writing - aka libraries. And that was not inconsiderable. But it didn't in any way touch the writing. Maybe it would push the writing aside sometimes, but mostly it was fine. Alexander Chee pushwritingsometimesway I've known the poet Eileen Myles since the 1990s, when I first moved to New York, and I remember seeing her walking her Pit Bull Rosie around the East Village. She had these beautiful arms and David Cassidy hair and the sort of swagger so many of the gay boys I knew wished we had. We all had crushes on her. Alexander Chee villagewalkinghairbeautiful Liz Benedict, a teacher of mine at Iowa, is the person who introduced me to James Salter's work. Alexander Chee personmeworkteacher The Narrator of 'A Sport and a Pastime' is an American photographer living in a borrowed house in what he calls 'the real France,' Autun, a small town where he hopes to take some career-changing photographs in the spirit of Atget. Alexander Chee smallrealspirithouse I'm not much of a Rick Moody fan, but I want to be a fan for the Rick Moody I thought might appear after his first two novels, 'Garden State' (1992) and 'The Ice Storm' (1994). Alexander Chee thoughtstormgardenwant It is expensive to live in hotels, even cheap ones - more expensive than renting. Alexander Chee cheaplivemoreexpensive I said that I like to write on trains and that I wished Amtrak had residencies for writers. Alexander Chee hadwritelikesaid My first letter of acceptance, to UMass - Amherst, came with an offer of a fellowship and a note from John Edgar Wideman. Alexander Chee offerfirstfellowshipacceptance
