I grew up treating a life as a writer as a career in letters, one devoted to many kinds of writing. And so it seemed normal to study both fiction writing and the literary essay as an undergrad. Alexander Chee More Quotes by Alexander Chee More Quotes From Alexander Chee 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 professional boy you voice 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 find need you details Fate and history have a similar feeling. They are weird mirrors to each other. Alexander Chee weird feeling fate history 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 me my-own identity world 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 push writing sometimes way 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 village walking hair beautiful Liz Benedict, a teacher of mine at Iowa, is the person who introduced me to James Salter's work. Alexander Chee person me work teacher 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 small real spirit house 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 thought storm garden want It is expensive to live in hotels, even cheap ones - more expensive than renting. Alexander Chee cheap live more expensive I said that I like to write on trains and that I wished Amtrak had residencies for writers. Alexander Chee had write like said My first letter of acceptance, to UMass - Amherst, came with an offer of a fellowship and a note from John Edgar Wideman. Alexander Chee offer first fellowship acceptance
