In general, teaching writing makes me a far better reader because there's so many ways to write a good sentence or a good story, and as a teacher I'm obliged to consider them all, rather than staying in the safety of my own tendencies. Leni Zumas More Quotes by Leni Zumas More Quotes From Leni Zumas Sometimes you just feel like you could work forever on something and never know when it's done. Leni Zumas done forever sometimes I cut hundreds of pages from my book because I felt myself being reiterative or redundant. Sometimes I wanted to leave just hints of things. Leni Zumas hints cutting book In my short stories there's a lot of focus on people successfully and not successfully responding to some sorts of discomforts or instabilities. Leni Zumas focus stories people I am fascinated by tiny, incremental changes, almost imperceptible shifts in how people orient themselves in the world, because those are in some ways the most hopeful. Leni Zumas hopeful people world Whether consciously or unconsciously, I felt myself drawn to writing a female character who was pretty flawed and not very virtuous or wonderful or attractive in these ways that throughout literary history we've come to expect female characters to be. Leni Zumas writing character way I find myself writing protagonists who do feel pretty cut off from others but who want to make connections and aren't very good at it. Leni Zumas connections cutting writing I'm always interested in encountering people who are synesthetic and seeing how they experience things. Leni Zumas seeing people If a synesthetic person says the letter a is green, it can't ever be anything but green. Leni Zumas green persons letters Part of being a writer is feeling that constant dissatisfaction, thinking about what else you could do, and also knowing when it's time to leave a project. Leni Zumas knowing feelings thinking
