I've learned over the years that the writing is smarter and far larger than the writer and his or her own desires for it. Andre Dubus More Quotes by Andre Dubus More Quotes From Andre Dubus I think what I love most [about writing] is that feeling that you really nailed something. Sometimes with a line you feel that it really captured what it is that you had inside you and you got it out for a stranger to read, someone who may never love you or meet you, but he or she is going to get that experience from that line. Andre Dubus love-you writing thinking But the writer who endures and keeps working will finally know that writing the book was something hard and glorious, for at the desk a writer must try to be free of prejudice, meanness of spirit, pettiness, and hatred; strive to be a better human being than the writer normally is, and to do this through concentration on a single word, and then another, and another. This is splendid work, as worthy and demanding as any, and the will and resilience to do it are good for the writer's soul. Andre Dubus hatred writing book Short story writers simply do what human beings have always done. They write stories because they have to; because they cannot rest until they have tried as hard as they can to write the stories. They cannot rest because they are human, and all of us need to speak into the silence of mortality, to interrupt and ever so briefly stop that quiet flow, and with stories try to understand at least some of it. Andre Dubus silence writing trying I read poetry every day. I love the boiled down essence of poetry. I look for poetry in prose. In a way that evocative. Andre Dubus essence looks way Teaching well draws from the same well that writing draws from: the reserves of compassion and ability to listen and concentrate on another. So I have to have fine line between teaching and writing. I try not to ever think of career. I just try to go to the dream world every day. Andre Dubus teaching dream writing I have always known that writing fiction had little effect on the world; that if it did, young men would not have gone to war after The Iliad. Andre Dubus writing men war Somewhere, sometime I'd stopped expecting my father to father. Andre Dubus expecting father As a young victim of bullying and then, later, a vindictive perpetrator of violence myself, I've known both sides of this experience, and I tried very hard in the writing here to be as absolutely honest as I possibly could, to not romanticize myself or my past actions or cowardly inactions in any way. Andre Dubus bullying writing past I was really surprised at the success of 'House of Sand and Fog,' because it is so awfully dark. Believe it or not, when writing it, I never had the word 'tragedy' in my head - I wasn't trying to write a dark book at all. Andre Dubus writing believe book What is art if not a concentrated and impassioned effort to make something with the little we have, the little we see? Andre Dubus effort littles art It is not hard to live through a day, if you can live through a moment. Andre Dubus hard moments ifs Wanting to know absolutely what a story is about, and to be able to say it in a few sentences, is dangerous: it can lead us to wanting to possess a story as we possess a cup... A story can always break into pieces while it sits inside a book on a shelf; and, decades after we have read it even twenty times, it can open us up, by cut or caress, to a new truth. Andre Dubus cutting twenties book my belief in the sacrament of the Eucharist is simple: without touch, God is a monologue, an idea, a philosophy; he must touch and be touched, the tongue on flesh, and that touch is the result of the monologues, the idea, the philosophies which led to faith; but in the instant of the touch there is no place for thinking, for talking; the silent touch affirms all that, and goes deeper: it affirms the mysteries of love and mortality. Andre Dubus simple philosophy thinking Talent is cheap. What really matters is discipline. Andre Dubus talent discipline matter One of the accidental joys of my writing life has been that I've had some lovely, surprisingly good fortune with readers, and I've brought readers to my dad's work. I can't tell you the joy that gives me. Because my father's work was masterful. Andre Dubus dad writing father I love short stories because I believe they are the way we live. Andre Dubus short-love stories believe That was the source of my vanity and my cowardice: always I believed everyone was watching me. Andre Dubus cowardice vanity source I love short stories because I believe they are the way we live. They are what our friends tell us, in their pain and joy, their passion and rage, their yearning and their cry against injustice. Andre Dubus short-love pain believe I wonder if politicians know less about the land, now that they campaign by air. Andre Dubus campaigns land air Don't quit. It's very easy to quit during the first 10 years. Nobody cares whether you write or not, and it's very hard to write when nobody cares one way or the other. You can't get fired if you don't write, and most of the time you don't get rewarded if you do. But don't quit. Andre Dubus care writing years
