If one publishes, then one is creating a public record of Learning to Write. Lorrie Moore More Quotes by Lorrie Moore More Quotes From Lorrie Moore This is what happened in love. One of you cried a lot and then both of you grew sarcastic. Lorrie Moore sarcasm sarcastic relationship For love to last, you had to have illusions or have no illusions at all. But you had to stick to one or the other. It was the switching back and forth that endangered things. Lorrie Moore love-relationship lasts sticks A short story is a love affair, a novel is a marriage. A short story is a photograph; a novel is a film. Lorrie Moore film stories writing The only really good piece of advice I have for my students is, 'Write something you'd never show your mother or father. And you know what they say? I could never do that!' Lorrie Moore mother writing father One had to build shelters. One had to make pockets and live inside them. Lorrie Moore shelter pockets Writing is both the excursion into and the excursion out of one's life. That is the queasy paradox of the artistic life. It is the thing that, like love, removes one both painfully and deliciously from the ordinary shape of existence. It joins another queasy paradox: that life is an amazing, hilarious, blessed gift and that it is also intolerable. Lorrie Moore blessed writing art What little reality television I've seen seems to be about economic desperation. Like the marathon dancing of the Great Depression, which should give us pause. People willing to eat flies and worms for a sum that is less than the weekly paycheck of the show's producer. I haven't seen "reality television" that is other than this kind of painful, sadistic exploitation of fit young people looking for agents. Lorrie Moore giving reality people The problem with a beautiful woman is that she makes everyone around her feel hopelessly masculine, which if you’re already male to begin with poses no particular problem. But if you’re anyone else, your whole sexual identity gets dragged into the principal’s office: “So what’s this I hear about you prancing around, masquerading as a woman?” You are answerless. You are sitting on your hands. You are praying for your breasts to grow, your hair to perk up. Lorrie Moore hair beautiful hands They had, finally, the only thing anyone really wants in life: someone to hold your hand when you die. Lorrie Moore dies want hands People love gossip because it's slightly removed from actuality. It's a very literary thing... You can hear a great story, and it turns out that it's largely not true. Fiction writing is like gossip. It's not malicious gossip, but it's gossip. Lorrie Moore gossip writing people You couldn't pretend you had lost nothing... you had to begin there, not let your blood freeze over. If your heart turned away at this, it would turn away at something greater, then more and more until your heart stayed averted, immobile, your imagination redistributed away from the world and back only toward the bad maps of yourself, the sour pools of your own pulse, your own tiny, mean, and pointless wants. Lorrie Moore heart mean blood I tried not to think about my life. I did not have any good solid plans for it long-term - no bad plans either, no plans at all - and the lostness of that, compared with the clear ambitions of my friends (marriage, children, law school), sometimes shamed me. Other times in my mind I defended such a condition as morally and intellectually superior - my life was open and ready and free - but that did not make it less lonely. Lorrie Moore lonely ambition children What makes humans human is precisely that they do not know the future. That is why they do the fateful and amusing things they do: who can say how anything will turn out? Therein lies the only hope for redemption, discovery, and-let’s be frank—fun, fun, fun! There might be things people will get away with. And not just motel towels. There might be great illicit loves, enduring joy, faith-shaking accidents with farm machinery. But you have to not know in order to see what stories your life’s efforts bring you. The mystery is all. Lorrie Moore discovery fun lying The thing to remember about love affairs," says Simone, "is that they are all like having raccoons in your chimney." ... We have raccoons sometimes in our chimney," explains Simone. And once we tried to smoke them out. We lit a fire, knowing they were there, but we hoped the smoke would cause them to scurry out the top and never come back. Instead, they caught on fire and came crashing down into our living room, all charred and in flames and running madly around until they dropped dead." Simone swallows some wine. "Love affairs are like that," she says. "They are all like that. Lorrie Moore wine fire running Pleasantness was the machismo of the Midwest. There was something athletic about it. You flexed your face into a smile and let it hover there like the dare of a cat. Lorrie Moore midwest athletic cat But I believed in starting over. There was finally, I knew, only rupture and hurt and falling short between all persons, but, Shirley, the best revenge was to turn your life into a small gathering of miracles. If I could not be anchored and profound, I would try, at least, to be kind. Lorrie Moore revenge hurt fall You chose love like a belief, a faith, a place, a box for one's heart to knock against like a spook in the house. Lorrie Moore belief house heart To write a short story, you have to be able to stay up all night. Lorrie Moore stories writing night But that inadequacy, or feeling of inadequacy, never really goes away. You just have to trudge ahead in the rain, regardless. Lorrie Moore fear rain feelings I would never understand photography, the sneaky, murderous taxidermy of it. Lorrie Moore taxidermy sneaky photography
