I've been to a lot of school and read a lot of thick books, but at my very core there's a made-for-TV-movie mentality I don't think i will ever shake. Pam Houston More Quotes by Pam Houston More Quotes From Pam Houston I'm always out looking for weird, beautiful things. Pam Houston beautiful-things beautiful It would have been so perfectly ironic if I had been killed by the dog, because I was petting a dog who was not used to being pet, because I think I'm some kind of dog whisperer, and I think I can make any dog love me. Pam Houston pet dog thinking Being in the presence of the "other" seems to show me who I am in a way that is really important to me. I feel radically more comfortable in Laos, say, than I do in Pennsylvania. Pam Houston pennsylvania who-i-am important Give me a labyrinth to walk and I can usually free my mind. Pam Houston labyrinth mind giving Movement helps keep me centered. I am a disaster, for instance, at sitting meditation, but I'm pretty decent at walking meditation. Pam Houston walking-meditation movement sitting For me, the shaping of the story is more important than accuracy. Pam Houston accuracy important stories I'm about going out in the world and noticing stuff, and going home and writing it down, and putting it next to other stuff I've noticed and seeing what happens. Pam Houston going-out home writing in general, I feel most comfortable between known quantities. Pam Houston quantity known feels I write well on the road. I have the energy, I have the motivation to write. I'm happy when I'm on the road. Pam Houston motivation energy writing I always think, when I'm in motion, writing seems like the most natural thing. Pam Houston natural writing thinking My parents were travelers. Every time my parents got ten dollars ahead they went somewhere. That's what they did. So I got the bug from them. Pam Houston dollars bugs parent I love the Bahamas, and I used to go there all the time with my friend who passed away, Henry. And I love it there, especially that island [Grand Exuma], so I've been there a lot over the twenty years. Pam Houston twenties islands years Sometimes I'm writing for magazines on assignment, but the university has to be patient with me. I mean, during the ten-week periods that I have a class, I'm there every Thursday night or whatever it is, but sometimes that's all I'm there, because I'm somewhere else the rest of the time. Pam Houston writing night mean When a book is in its final stages, I've just got to be home, looking at it seventeen hours a day, and that's fine. But all that initial creation of the early drafts, I'd just as soon write it on the road in any extreme place. That's sort of ideal. Pam Houston home writing book Praise Roxane Gay for her big-hearted self-examining intelligence, for her inclusive and forgiving stance, for her courage and determination . . . for saying out loud the things we were thinking, for guiding us back to ourselves and returning to us what was ours all along. Pam Houston gay determination thinking Cheryl Strayed is a courageous, gritty, and deceptively elegant writer. Pam Houston elegant courageous There was something about the prairie for me—it wasn’t where I had come from, but when I moved there it just took me in and I knew I couldn’t ever stop living under that big sky. Pam Houston prairie bigs sky Do you write novels?" I said. "Novels, Lord no," she said. "I can't even stay married. Pam Houston married lord writing It's September 21st, a day I love for the balance it carries with it. Pam Houston carrie september balance