I'm a professional. So before I published any novels, I'd always been writing stories. Jess Walter More Quotes by Jess Walter More Quotes From Jess Walter Who isn't crazy sometimes? Who hasn't driven around a block hoping a certain person will come out; who hasn't haunted a certain coffee shop, or stared obsessively at an old picture; who hasn't toiled over every word in a letter, taken four hours to write a two-sentence email, watched the phone praying it will ring; who doesn't lay awake at night sick with the image of her sleeping with someone else? Jess Walter blockcoffeecrazy I think so, too. I know I felt that way. For years. It was as if I was a character in a movie and the real action was about to start at any minute. But I think some people wait forever, and only at the end of their lives do they realize that their life has happened while they were waiting for it to start. Jess Walter realcharacterlife His life was two lives now: the life he would have and the life he would forever wonder about. Jess Walter foreverlifetwo You probably have to trust that your work is following certain themes and certain movements, but then the rest is a kind of piecing together so that the whole becomes larger than the parts. Jess Walter movementkindtogether There are only two good outcomes for a quest like this, the hope of the serendipitous savant — sail for Asia and stumble on America — and the hope of scarecrows and tin men: that you find out you had the thing you sought all along. Jess Walter mentwoamerica Sometimes what we want to do and what we must do are not the same. Pasquo, the smaller the space between your desire and what is right, the happier you will be. Jess Walter spacewantdesire Then she smiled, and in that instant, if such a thing were possible, Pasquale fell in love, and he would remain in love for the rest of his life--not so much with the woman, whom he didn't even know, but with the moment. Jess Walter instantmomentsknows I'm certainly eclectic in my writing. Jess Walter eclecticwriting If a police officer arrests a mime, does he need to tell him he has the right to remain silent. Jess Walter policedoeneeds And if a moment exists only in one's perception anyway, then perhaps the rush of feeling he has now is THE MOMENT, and not merely its shadow. Jess Walter shadowperceptionfeelings This is what happens when you live in dreams, he thought: you dream this and you dream that and you sleep right through your life. Jess Walter dreamsleeplife The neighborhoods I grew up in were poor and full of drug users. I don't think you have to look that hard to find those kinds of lives. But I also don't think you have to have experienced it really close to be able to empathize. Jess Walter druglooksthinking He wished he could reassure his mother: a man wants many things in life, but when one of them is also the right thing, he would be a fool not to choose it. Jess Walter things-in-lifemothermen I wake at 5 or 5:30 most mornings, make myself a latte and grab a cookie, write until 10 or 11, go have my favorite meal, 'second breakfast,' or grab coffee with friends, or play basketball. Then, around noon, I begin apologizing via email for the manuscripts I can't get to. Jess Walter coffeebasketballmorning Some memories remain close; you can shut your eyes and find yourself back in them. But there are second-person memories, too, distant you memories, and these are trickier: you watch yourself in disbelief. Jess Walter finding-yourselfeyememories For many people it's Facebook, or sports on TV, whatever it is. I have my own demons that I battle. But whatever they are, you wish you could not do them. For most of us it's "I cannot get off Facebook." But imagine that your demon has you living on the street. I don't think those compulsions and obsessions are that different. Jess Walter sportspeoplethinking Stories are people. I'm a story, you're a story ... your father is a story. Our stories go in every direction, but sometimes, if we're lucky, our stories join into one, and for a while, we're less alone. Jess Walter luckyfatherpeople A writer needs four things to achieve greatness, Pasquale: desire, disappointment, and the sea.” “That’s only three.” Alvis finished his wine. “You have to do disappointment twice. Jess Walter greatnesswinedisappointment Life, he thought, is a blatant act of imagination. Jess Walter imagination If you come from money and you become an addict, you go to the Betty Ford Clinic, you get treatment. If you're living on the street and you're an addict, it's much harder to find your way out. Jess Walter hardertreatmentway
