I often read poetry to 'warm up' before I write. Amity Gaige More Quotes by Amity Gaige More Quotes From Amity Gaige Childhood is supposed to be happy, and if you can't remember yours with any happiness, what hope have you later, when life starts handing you fresh grief? Amity Gaige childhood grief remember To be a writer, open your heart. Keep it open. You can't be a writer with a closed heart. Amity Gaige open-your-heart heart Be happy. Decide to be happy. If you want to be happy, be happy! No one cares if you're happy or not, so why wait for permission? And did it really matter if you had been deeply unhappy in your past? Who but you remembered that? Amity Gaige unhappy waiting past To me, self-esteem is not self-love. It is self-acknowledgment, as in recognizing and accepting who you are. Amity Gaige self-love self-esteem me you Reading 'Blood Will Out,' one begins to understand how so many people were duped by Clark Rockefeller. All the imposter needs is some kind of initial agreement that he is who he says he is; thereafter, consensus builds via a network of human relationships. Amity Gaige will understand reading people Don't let anyone tell you there's only one way to write. Amity Gaige only tell you way It goes without saying that before its culture and literature can continue to evolve, Latvia first must endure the political comedy of creating a stable, functioning and unthreatened democracy. Amity Gaige comedy democracy political culture I do think, in general, children are so perceptive, and they watch and they get so much, and that's wonderful. And it's also difficult for them because they see so much, but they don't understand. Amity Gaige understand see think children Other than a short article I read in 2008 when the real story broke, I have not followed the Clark Rockefeller case, and 'Schroder' is not a novelization of that story. Amity Gaige short story broke real I love writing letters. In order to write a novel in first person, I think I needed an addressee. Amity Gaige person think writing love I researched children's rights, divorce law, and parental kidnapping. Millions of children and parents are touched by the inadequacy of the legal system to deal with the human heart. Amity Gaige parents law heart children Oh, I'm a pretty bad poet. This has been corroborated by others. Amity Gaige others pretty bad poet I wanted - and still want - to tell my mother's story. She fled Stalin's army in 1944, leaving Latvia, which was to be occupied by the Soviets for the next 50 years, and arrived to the U.S. when she was 11. Amity Gaige story army mother want I think marriage and family keeps being written about because that's where we keep our reputations with ourselves - I mean, we can't quite slip the truths we reveal about ourselves at home. Amity Gaige think marriage family home 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?' is, to my mind, a work of perfect genius. Amity Gaige genius perfect mind work Reading while I'm writing ideally inspires my competitive side. When I read great writers, I want to be a better writer. Amity Gaige better great reading writing In the best writers, the outward-reaching interest in the 'found subject' leads back at a hairpin to some uncomfortable inner recognition that the writer has journeyed very far to see; he comes home half-dead. Amity Gaige best back see home I think a writer is a describer. She describes society and human nature as she sees it. She has to be both typical of that society and alone within it. Amity Gaige alone think society nature I loved Madeleine L'Engle as a child - 'A Wrinkle in Time.' Amity Gaige wrinkle loved child time My personal writing philosophy is to try and write better every day. Amity Gaige every-day better day writing