If you want to write about people, you can make it up. But if you spend time talking to someone and examining what it is you want to write about, you discover a level of detail that you wouldn't have noticed otherwise. Dave Eggers More Quotes by Dave Eggers More Quotes From Dave Eggers Some of these kids just don't plain know how good they are: how smart and how much they have to say. You can tell them. You can shine that light on them, one human interaction at a time. Dave Eggers smart light kids I need eight hours to get maybe 20 minutes of work done. I had one of those yesterday: seven hours of self-loathing. Dave Eggers eight self yesterday Suffering is only suffering if it’s done in silence, in solitude. Pain experienced in public, in view of loving millions, was no longer pain. It was communion. Dave Eggers pain silence views I have no idea how people function without near-constant internal chaos. I'd lose my mind. Dave Eggers mind people ideas Be strong, be brave, be true. Endure. Dave Eggers endure strong brave I was feeling everything too much. Everything pulled at my eyes. I spent hours floating in pools. Dave Eggers floating eye feelings I think almost every writer in the world would hope that books would be always talked about with respect and civility and depth and seriousness. Dave Eggers depth book thinking I had the sensation that I might always be running like this, that I would always have to run, and that I would always be able to run. Dave Eggers able running might I'll always be working on five things at once, usually with those documents open at the same time because if I get stuck somewhere I'll jump over to something else. That's how my head has always worked. Dave Eggers documents stuck five I see colors like you hear jet planes. Dave Eggers jet-planes like-you color You can't ever guess at life, at pain. All pain is real, and all pain is personal. It's the most personal thing we have. It eats each of us differently. Dave Eggers personal-things pain real Do not be critics, you people, I beg you. I was a critic and I wish I could take it all back because it came from a smelly and ignorant place in me, and spoke with a voice that was all rage and envy. Do not dismiss a book until you have written one, and do not dismiss a movie until you have made one, and do not dismiss a person until you have met them. It is a f@*$%load of work to be open-minded and generous and understanding and forgiving and accepting, but Christ, that is what matters. What matters is saying yes. Dave Eggers creativity what-matters book GOD: I own you like I own the caves. THE OCEAN: Not a chance. No comparison. GOD: I made you. I could tame you. THE OCEAN: At one time, maybe. But not now. GOD: I will come to you, freeze you, break you. THE OCEAN: I will spread myself like wings. I am a billion tiny feathers. You have no idea what's happened to me. Dave Eggers ocean wings ideas And we will be ready, at the end of every day will be ready, will not say no to anything, will try to stay awake while everyone is sleeping, will not sleep, will make the shoes with the elves, will breathe deeply all the time, breathe in all the air full of glass and nails and blood, will breathe it and drink it, so rich, so when it comes we will not be angry, will be content, tired enough to go, gratefully, will shake hands with everyone, bye, bye, and then pack a bag, some snacks, and go to the volcano. Dave Eggers tired glasses sleep But what I really want is to just swim around in a warm baby pool of these friends, jump in their dry leaf pile-to rub them all over myself, without words and clothes. Dave Eggers clothes swim baby Well, my background is journalism. I don't have any creative-writing experience except for one class I took as a sophomore in college. Dave Eggers college writing class In hospitals I feel palpable comfort. I feel the competence, the expertise, so much education and money, all of the supplies sterile, everything packaged, sealed tight. My fears evaporate when the automatic doors shush open. Dave Eggers competence comfort doors When we pass by another person without telling them we love them it’s cruel and wrong and we all know this. Dave Eggers persons knows For years I feared the opening of every elevator, half-convinced that from the opened doors would come a bullet, for me, shot by a man in a tan trenchcoat. I have no idea why I feared this, expected it to happen. I even knew how I would react to this bullet coming from the elevator door, what word I would say. That word was: Finally. Dave Eggers doors men years You might not be able to operate your own Learjet and have an unlimited expense account, but if you have a reasonable expectation for a print-based product, whether it's a newspaper or a magazine, you can certainly exist. Dave Eggers magazines expectations might
