I never saw a gun until I was 24. I didn't grow up in Mayberry; I grew up in Southern California. Susan Straight More Quotes by Susan Straight More Quotes From Susan Straight The shimmering, lucid tones and silver melancholy of I'll Be Right There give readers a South Korea peopled with citizens fighting for honor and intellectual freedom, and longing for love and solace. Kyung-Sook Shin's characters have unforgettable voices-it's no wonder she has so many fans. Susan Straight korea fighting character I have a million nightingales on the branches of my heart singing freedom. Susan Straight singing freedom heart Marriage wrecks any decent relationship. Susan Straight decent wrecks I never took the bus. Never. Walking meant you were eccentric or pious or a loser - riding the bus meant you were insane or masochistic and worse than a loser. Susan Straight riding eccentric insane The best thing I could say is you do have to be a really good listener. If I go to a family reunion, and there's 400 people there, everybody comes up and tells me their stories, right? And I think that when you're a good listener, and you can imagine how someone's talking, dialogue is your key friend, is it not? Susan Straight best good me family The two words, in the American lexicon, are never good. Pink slip. The first time I ever heard it when I was young was when Kaiser Steel handed out pink slips to many of my neighbors and relatives. Layoffs were about efficiency, sales figures for raw materials or refrigerators. Susan Straight pink words good time I love election day, and I love to vote. Susan Straight day election vote love I'm trying to make the readers feel as if he or she is right there in the conversation, and so I don't try to manipulate it too much. Susan Straight feel try conversation trying It's always fun to talk about a novel. Susan Straight about talk always fun The American fantasy of love is the 'meet-cute,' 'Love at first sight,' and 'You had me at hello!' The completely spontaneous version of accidental love, which doesn't care about demographics and social compatibility. Susan Straight me you love-is love Teachers spend most of their daytime hours with children. Teachers at every level, coaches, counselors, cafeteria workers and yes, custodians, spend their hours trying to make children's lives different, if not always better. Susan Straight teachers better trying children I wrote a story about a man who is orphaned during the 1927 Mississippi River flood in Louisiana, and he's on the banks of levee, and he's starving. And there are other people starving, too. And he's so desperate, he's seven years old, that he finds a pig that's been abandoned. He kills it with a hammer, and he drags it back. Susan Straight river story man people I still live in the same place I've lived all my life. Susan Straight live my-life place life All I am is a writer and a mom. Susan Straight am writer i-am mom I don't write about myself. I'm never in my books. Susan Straight books write never myself My brother acquired his first gun when he was very young, from a recently-fled drug dealer's residence. Now, he lived in a rural orange-grove area, and he shot at coyotes who killed his animals and at drug runners who used the groves for transport. Sometimes he joked that he only shot what moved. Susan Straight animals gun brother sometimes All my best memories of my brother are in vehicles, speeding, predatory or celebratory. We were just made to drive. For the last 12 years of his life, he lived as caretaker of an orange grove. There, on 18 acres, my brother collected cars and trucks and motorcycles. Susan Straight best brother memories life My mother and father split up when I was three and my brother was still in the womb. Susan Straight three brother mother father I have not ever been able to decide how would my girls have fared if they came up in a different time? Susan Straight decide how different time I have more than 100 legal pads filled with handwriting. Eight novels, two books for children, countless stories and essays. Susan Straight legal more two children
