I always do the wrong. I do the wrong thing so much that the times I actually do the right thing stand out so brightly in my memory that I forget I always do the wrong thing. Lorrie Moore More Quotes by Lorrie Moore More Quotes From Lorrie Moore Humor comes from the surprise release of some buried tension. Lorrie Moore buried release surprise She hadn't been given the proper tools to make a real life with, she decided, that was it. She'd been given a can of gravy and a hairbrush and told, "There you go." -- Willing Lorrie Moore gravy tools real You know, as fiction writers, if our instincts are off, we can't pay our bills. Lorrie Moore bills pay fiction If I had a staff of even one person, or could tolerate a small amphetamine habit, or entertain the possibility of weekly blood transfusions, or had been married to Vera Nabokov, or had a housespouse of even minimal abilities, a literary life would be easier to bring about. (In my mind I see all your male readers rolling their eyes. But your female ones - what is that? Are they nodding in agreement? Are their fists in the air?) Lorrie Moore eye air writing Love is the answer, said the songs, and that's OK. It was OK, I supposed, as an answer. But no more than that. It was not a solution; it wasn't really even an answer, just a reply. Lorrie Moore answers song love-is All the world's a stage we're going through. Lorrie Moore stage world I've come to realize that life, while being everything, is also strangely not much. Except when the light shines on it a different way and then you realize it's a lot after all! Lorrie Moore shine-on shining light Nothing's a joke with me. It just all comes out like one. Lorrie Moore jokes When she packed up to leave, she knew that she was saying goodbye to something important, which was not that bad, in a way, because it meant that at least you had said hello to it to begin with. Lorrie Moore important goodbye way If one loves stories, then one would naturally love the story of the story. Or the story behind the story, pick your preposition. It does seem to me to be a kind of animal impulse almost, a mammalian curiosity. For a reader to wonder about the autobiography in a fiction may be completely unavoidable and in fact may speak to the success of a particular narrative, though it may also speak to its failure. Lorrie Moore curiosity stories animal I wondered about the half-life of regret. Lorrie Moore half-life regret half If prose can cast a spell, we will listen to it no matter what it's saying. If a narrative uses language in a magical and enlivening way, we will listen to the story. But if the language doesn't cast a spell, we will listen to it only if it is telling us something that actually happened. Lorrie Moore narrative use stories What do I do when writing isn't going well? Well, I don't write - which is symptom, cure, and cause. And then sometimes I just tell myself, as I'm writing, "I'll fix it later." And sometimes it's true, I do. Lorrie Moore causes writing sometimes Awkwardness is where tension is, and tension is where the story is. It's also where the comedy is, which I'm interested in; when it resolves it tends to resolve toward melancholy, a certain resignation, which I find interesting as well. Lorrie Moore comedy stories interesting Editing is just ongoing. I don't count drafts, or know what would fully constitute a draft. But I try to fix as I go. And there's always more to fix. Lorrie Moore ongoing editing trying I count too heavily on birthdays, though I know I shouldn't. Inevitably I begin to assess my life by them, figure out how I'm doing by how many people remember; it's like the old fantasy of attending your own funeral: You get to see who your friends are, get to see who shows up. Lorrie Moore who-your-friends-are funeral people Things between us were dissolving like an ice cub in a glass: the smaller it got, the faster it disappeared. Lorrie Moore cubs ice glasses Most things good for writing are bad for life. Lorrie Moore writing Love is a fever," she said. "And when you come out of it you'll discover whether you've been lucky - or not. Lorrie Moore fever lucky love-is But family life sometimes had a vortex, like weather. It could be like a tornado in a quiet zigzag: get close enough and you might see within it a spinning eighteen-wheeler and a woman. Lorrie Moore vortex weather might
