I'm interested in themes that endure from generation to generation. David Guterson More Quotes by David Guterson More Quotes From David Guterson Time made me change. I gradually woke up to the realization that this is who I am, an author, a public figure, and I couldn't just hide in my study, tapping away at the keyboard and pretend that I didn't have a role to play beyond stringing words together. David Guterson who-i-am together play I'm a hypocrite, of course, and I live with that, but I live. David Guterson courses hypocrite We should recognize that schools will never solve the bedrock problems of education because the problems are problems of families, of cultural pressures that the schools reflect and thus cannot really remedy. David Guterson problem pressure school The real question is: How do you react? What do you do next? Evade responsibilities? Bury yourself in work? What do you do? All three of my novels take up that question, although none gives an answer. David Guterson real responsibility giving The status quo was rote memorization and recitation in classrooms thronged with passive children who were sternly disciplined when they expressed individual needs. David Guterson memorization children needs Don Quixote is one that comes to mind in comparison to mine, in that they both involve journeys undertaken by older men. That is unusual, because generally the hero of a journey story is very young. David Guterson journey hero men My book is traditional. It runs counter to the post-modern spirit. David Guterson literature running book I often heard about his cases and I often sat in on his trials. In the late 1960s when I was growing up I wanted to be a crusader like him but I didn't want to wear a suit and commute. David Guterson growing-up literature trials Even though I may not intend it when I set out to write the book, these places just emerge as major players in what I'm doing, almost as if they are insisting on it. David Guterson player writing book I have traveled the entire state and spent a lot of time out of doors. So I have known the landscape of the Columbia Basin for quite a while, and I have had this strong feeling about it for many years. David Guterson strong doors years I think of myself as a really happy person. David Guterson happy-person really-happy thinking I have relaxed into my persona as an author, although I used to fight that. David Guterson persona used fighting There's a certain nostalgia and romance in a place you left. David Guterson romance certain nostalgia It's a brooding melancholy that haunts me. David Guterson brooding melancholy Cities produce in me melancholy or a tension I don't need. David Guterson melancholy cities needs Hemingway said the only way to write about a place is to leave it. David Guterson literature writing way I became paralyzed as an artist with writer's block. David Guterson block artist literature My father is a practicing criminal law attorney in the Seattle area. David Guterson criminals law father How could they say that they truly loved each other? They had simply grown up together, been children together, and the proximity of it, the closeness of it, had produced in them love s illusion. And yet - on the other hand - what was love if it wasn't this instinct she felt. David Guterson together children hands To deny that there was this dark side of life would be like pretending that the cold of winter was somehow only a temporary illusion, a way station on the way to the higher "reality" of long, warm, pleasant summers. But summer, it turned out, was no more real than the snow that melted in wintertime. David Guterson real summer life