I always use primary sources, in addition to reading biographies and other materials. Nancy Horan More Quotes by Nancy Horan More Quotes From Nancy Horan It has always been on the written page that the world has come into focus for me. If I can piece all these bits of memory together with the diaries and letters and the scribbled thoughts that clutter my mind and bookshelves, then maybe I can explain what happened. Maybe the worlds I have inhabited for the past seven years will assume order and logic and wholeness on paper. Maybe I can tell my story in a way that is useful to someone else. Nancy Horan memories order past I'm like the trunk of a cactus... I take in a dose of culture and time with friends, then I retreat and go live on it for awhile until I get thirsty again. Nancy Horan cactus retreat culture It has always been on the written page that the world has come into focus for me. Nancy Horan pages focus world I have been standing on the side of life, watching it float by. I want to swim in the river. I want to feel the current. -Loving Frank Nancy Horan swim want rivers I love you so much. I love you enough that I want to stay separate from you. You're an extraordinary man, Frank Wright. I could so easily lose myself in your world and never make a world of my own. And where would that leave us? We'd both be bored stupid. Nancy Horan stupid love men It's not good to live so much inside oneself. It's a self-imposed exile, really. It makes you different. Nancy Horan exile different self Don't you see what's happened? You wanted to be in love again. To feel that feeling where a man you hardly know gazes into your eyes and seems to be the only human being who ever understood the real you. Nancy Horan i-love-you eye real In the end, what really matters? Only kindness. Only making somebody a little happier for your presence. Nancy Horan kindness littles life How small we humans are. All our scrambling around, trying to buttress ourselves against death. All our efforts to insulate ourselves against uncertainty with codes of behavior and meaningless busyness. Nancy Horan effort behavior trying What did a person need to survive? Food. Water. Shelter. Warmth in cold weather. And something else... books. Nancy Horan weather water book It's wonderful to feel desired. There's a sense of power in it, really. Nancy Horan wonderful feels So this was the big secret historians keep to themselves: historical research is wildly seductive and fun. There's a thrill in the process of digging, then piecing together details like a puzzle. Nancy Horan puzzle research together fun I guess I'm drawn to artists and literary people and want to learn about them. Nancy Horan learn about want people One of the great lessons I learned about historical fiction from writing 'Loving Frank' is that you don't try to disguise what people did; my approach was to try to understand the characters and why they did what they did. Nancy Horan great understand you people I'm married to Kevin, a photographer whose career has put him on the campaign trail with presidential candidates and sent him on assignment to far-flung places for long periods of time. It was sometimes rough when our children were small, and I was beginning to write in earnest. Nancy Horan time sometimes long children If someone had told me in high school that one day I'd write an historical novel, I would have rolled my eyes. Nancy Horan eyes day me school 'Loving Frank' is about a forbidden love affair between two people who lived a hundred years ago - Frank Lloyd Wright and his married client, Mamah Borthwick Cheney. The affair set off a colossal newspaper scandal when the lovers ran off to Europe together. Nancy Horan loving together love people History class was a forty-minute squirm from which I would emerge unscathed by insight. Down the hall in English Lit, though, there were stories to be had, and it was stories I craved. Nancy Horan english down class history
