Happiness is so awfully complicated, but freedom isn't. You're either tied down or you're not. Paula McLain More Quotes by Paula McLain More Quotes From Paula McLain I hope we'll get lucky enough to grow old together. Paula McLain luckyenoughtogether Ernest once told me that the word paradise was a Persian words that meant walled garden. I knew then that he understood how necessary the promises we made to each other were to our happiness. You couldn't have real freedom unless you knew were the walls were and tended to them. We could lean on the walls because they existed; they existed because we leaned on them. Paula McLain wallgardenreal People belong to each other only as long as they both believe. He stopped believing. Paula McLain longbelievepeople All that was left for me was a terrible kind of paralysis, this waiting game, this heartbreak game. Paula McLain kindgameswaiting But love is love. It makes you do terribly stupid things. Paula McLain stupid-thingsstupidlove-is And that's when he finally tells me his name is Ernest. I'm thinking of giving it away, though. Ernest is so dull, and Hemingway? Who wants a Hemingway? Paula McLain namesgivingthinking And sometimes I think there isn’t anything to us but our mistakes. Paula McLain mistakesometimesthinking I get suggestions all the time. People feel quite free at events or even on the street to tell me what they think I should be writing. What I've learned, though, is that this thing, this connection, has to be in place for me to be able to kind of launch into a world imaginatively. Paula McLain metimepeopleworld I wrote a lot of poetry when I was a teenager - mostly desperate love poetry! Paula McLain wrotedesperatepoetrylove I took my first creative writing class when I was 24, then went onto to get a graduate degree in poetry. I've sort of never looked back from there. Paula McLain neverpoetrycreativewriting It had never occurred to me to write a historical novel, but then I found Hadley in the pages of Hemingway's 'A Moveable Feast' and wanted to know more about her - who she was, how she and Ernest met and fell in love, what it was like for her to be married to such a demanding and stormy force of nature. Paula McLain nevermenaturelove There are many days when I want to throw my computer out the window, when I tell myself I'd be better off selling shoes at the mall. But I always keep at it, because I have to. Writing is completely part of who I am. Even if I never published another book, I would keep at it - because it feeds my life and makes it richer. Paula McLain i-ammy-lifemyselflife
