I've been simultaneously drawn to and repelled from Hollywood for years. Jess Walter More Quotes by Jess Walter More Quotes From Jess Walter I realized the structure in a collection is how they're put together. Structuring the collection became the art of it for me. Because the stories had all been written. Jess Walter stories together art No one gets to tell you what your life means! Jess Walter life-means mean And because he felt like he might burst open and because he lacked the dexterity in English to say all that he was thinking--how in his estimation, the more you lived the more regret and longing you suffered, that life was a glorious catastrophe--Pasquale Tursi said, only, "Yes. Jess Walter dexterity regret thinking Yes, what is it like? Certainly not like she dreamed. But maybe that's okay. We want what we want. At home, she works herself into a frenzy worrying about what she isn't--and perhaps loses track of just where she is. Jess Walter track home worry I wrote short stories for seven years and used to mail them out. You couldn't send them by e-mail. I called them manila boomerangs. I'd seal the self-addressed stamped envelope inside an envelope and I'd mail it off, and it would come back six weeks later with a rejection letter in it. Jess Walter rejection self years What kind of wife would I be if I left your father simply because he was dead? Jess Walter wife kind father Maybe every couple lived in the gaps between conversations, unable to say the important things for fear they had already been said, or couldn't be said; maybe every relationship started over every time two people came together. Jess Walter couple two people I'm a professional. So before I published any novels, I'd always been writing stories. Jess Walter writing-stories stories writing I think the path to becoming a writer has become more through the novel. It's easier to get a novel published than a book of stories, obviously, especially through big publishers. Jess Walter stories book thinking The stories tend to be what I work on when I'm stuck. Something will just pop into my head and I'll think that's more of a story. Jess Walter pops stories thinking Because I'm a novelist, I think in terms of structure. The way I keep going is through structure. It's what inspires me and pushes me through. Jess Walter novelists inspire thinking The form is so malleable and can do so many things. Jess Walter form can-do I quickly decided my zombies weren't really zombies. It was instead something you called people who were on this club drug, who then exhibited aggressive behaviors. And then like everyone who writes about zombies, I found it was so much fun. Jess Walter writing fun people It's once I discover the people inside that the story really gets going, and then the formal invention becomes less important. It's just the way in; it's the door; and then what's behind it is always some kind of people, which I think probably makes me more in the tradition of realistic fiction because that's usually what I'm interested in, the people. Jess Walter doors people thinking I love humor in writing, so I've written to the thing that's funny, there's the joke, but then I just kept going. I started thinking about all the bikes I've had stolen, and that got me thinking about crime, and that got me thinking about the city I'm in. Jess Walter cities writing thinking The first fiction I ever wrote was short stories. I was writing short stories in my late teens and early twenties, and I think it's how you teach yourself to write. Jess Walter twenties writing thinking My poems... the ones that start out as jokes become these big ponderous things and the ones that start out ponderous devolve into jokes. Jess Walter big start things jokes I think I would explode in flames of irony if I were to option an idea that I was satirizing in a novel. Jess Walter i-think think irony novel There was a real conflation of hero and victim in the wake of 9/11, in our perverse desire to create a triumphant myth out of pure tragedy. Jess Walter tragedy real hero desire I don't know that any writing comes easily, but I certainly get more immersed in novels. I don't think the routine is any different, but fiction tends to pull me further away from my life. When I'm deep in a novel, I don't pay bills and I walk around in one shoe, drinking two-day old coffee, and calling my kids by the wrong names. Jess Walter walk me coffee life
