I first started writing fiction in college because I was attracted to beautiful sentences. I loved to read them. I wanted to write them. Karen Thompson Walker More Quotes by Karen Thompson Walker More Quotes From Karen Thompson Walker I'm an only child, and I think one of the sweet things about that is that my parents are really interested in every aspect of my life. Karen Thompson Walker sweet children thinking Who knows how fast a second-guess can travel? Who has ever measured the exact speed of regret? Karen Thompson Walker know-how speed regret I tend to mostly take the day off from working on Sundays, but I do spend some time reading. Mostly what I'm picking up is what's in stores. I really do love to read fiction from the last year or two. Karen Thompson Walker sunday reading years I love conventional apocalypse movies. In movies, I like to be with the President, or the scientist trying to solve the problem, but that's not the kind of fiction that I like to read. Karen Thompson Walker president trying fiction I like to edit my sentences as I write them. I rearrange a sentence many times before moving on to the next one. For me, that editing process feels like a form of play, like a puzzle that needs solving, and it's one of the most satisfying parts of writing. Karen Thompson Walker editing writing moving I fell in love with Virginia Woolf in college. I especially admire how well she writes about daily life, how she captures so much meaning and consequence in the smallest details of a day. Karen Thompson Walker virginia college writing Feeling earthquakes was part of growing up, and also preparing for them: doing earthquake drills, or having earthquake supplies. The looming feeling was part of my life. My experience of earthquakes has always been more the fear of them, or the possibility. Karen Thompson Walker growing-up feelings earthquakes I left my job in the fall, and now I can set my life up around writing instead of squeezing writing into my day; it's amazing to have that time, and I feel very lucky. Karen Thompson Walker writing jobs fall The books I love most are the ones that combine some sort of gripping story with really beautiful or stylish writing. Some of my favorites are 'The Road' by Cormac McCarthy, 'The Virgin Suicides' by Jeffrey Eugenides, 'The Interpreter of Maladies' by Jhumpa Lahiri, and 'Blindness' by Jose Saramago. Karen Thompson Walker road stylish beautiful love Our fears are an amazing gift of the imagination... a way of glimpsing what might be the future when there's still time to influence how that future will play out. Karen Thompson Walker gift future imagination time These days, I like to think of sentences as workers. Only one of their jobs is to look and sound good. Sentences are the carriers of plot. They're the conjurers of images, the conveyors of tone and meaning and voice. The best sentences surprise us. Karen Thompson Walker best good look surprise
