In a rough way the short story writer is to the novelist as a cabinetmaker is to a house carpenter. Annie Proulx More Quotes by Annie Proulx More Quotes From Annie Proulx You know, one of the tragedies of real life is that there is no background music. Annie Proulx tragedy real life-is You should write because you love the shape of stories and sentences and the creation of different words on a page. Writing comes from reading, and reading is the finest teacher of how to write. Annie Proulx reading writing teacher We face up to awful things because we can't go around them, or forget them. The sooner you get it over with, the sooner you say 'Yes, it happened, and there's nothing I can do about it,' the sooner you can get on with your own life. You've got children to bring up. So you've got to get over it. What we have to get over, somehow we do. Even the worst things. Annie Proulx acceptance life children What I find to be very bad advice is the snappy little sentence, 'Write what you know.' It is the most tiresome and stupid advice that could possibly be given. If we write simply about what we know we never grow. We don't develop any facility for languages, or an interest in others, or a desire to travel and explore and face experience head-on. We just coil tighter and tighter into our boring little selves. What one should write about is what interests one. Annie Proulx stupid self writing If you get the landscape right, the characters will step out of it, and they'll be in the right place. Annie Proulx landscape writing character Writing comes from reading, and reading is the finest teacher of how to write. Annie Proulx reading writing teacher Walking on the land or digging in the fine soil I am intensely aware that time quivers slightly, changes occurring in imperceptible and minute ways, accumulating so subtly that they seem not to exist. Yet the tiny shifts in everything--cell replication, the rain of dust motes, lengthening hair, wind-pushed rocks--press inexorably on and on. Annie Proulx rocks rain hair Anyway, there's something wrong with everybody and it's up to you to know what you can handle. Annie Proulx up-to-you handle knows I think it's important to leave spaces in a story for readers to fill in from their own experience. Annie Proulx space writing thinking We're all strange inside. We learn how to disguise our differences as we grow up. Annie Proulx growing-up strange differences What we fear we often rage against. Annie Proulx rage Develop craftsmanship through years of wide reading. Annie Proulx wide reading years It is my feeling that a story is not finished until it is read, and that the reader finishes it through his or her life experience, prejudices, worldview and thoughts. Annie Proulx prejudice views feelings I find it satisfying and intellectually stimulating to work with the intensity, brevity, balance and word play of the short story. Annie Proulx balance play hair I wish I knew how to quit you. Annie Proulx real-love movie romantic And I think that's important, to know how the water's gone over the dam before you start to describe it. It helps to have been over the dam yourself. Annie Proulx adversity water thinking ... there are four women in every man’s heart. The Maid in the Meadow, the Demon Lover, the Stouthearted Woman, the Tall and Quiet Woman. Annie Proulx maids heart men Everybody that went away suffered a broken heart. "I'm coming back some day," they all wrote. But never did. The old life was too small to fit anymore. Annie Proulx fit broken heart I am influenced by words and the chewiness of language Annie Proulx language Change itself is what fascinates me. I am drawn, as a moth to the flame, by edge situations, by situations of metamorphosis. Annie Proulx metamorphosis crafts flames
