Life should always be like this. ... Like lingering over a good meal. Janet Fitch More Quotes by Janet Fitch More Quotes From Janet Fitch I wish my life could be like that, knotted up so that even if something broke, the whole thing wouldn't come apart. Janet Fitch oleanders broke wish My hatred gives me strength. Janet Fitch hate hatred giving We parked in back and walked down the stairs with their polished brass railings, past the old-fashioned kitchen. We could see the chefs cooking. It smelled like stew, or meat loaf, the way time should smell, solid and nourishing. Janet Fitch smell cooking past This is what happens when you fall in love. You're looking at a natural disaster. Janet Fitch falling-in-love natural love-you Never apologize. Never explain. Janet Fitch apologizing This was the life I was going to be living, everybody separated from everybody else, hanging on for a moment only to be washed away. Janet Fitch hanging-on moments I was tired of men. Hanging in doorways, standing too close, men who made you love them then changed their minds. Janet Fitch tired mind men Being in the library is so addictive for me that I really have to exercise self-control so I can get some writing done at home. Janet Fitch exercise home writing Let me tell you a few things about regret. There is no end to it. Do you regret the beginning which ended so badly, or just the ending itself? Janet Fitch let-me regret ends No matter how unappealing, each of them imagines he is somehow worthy. Janet Fitch imagine worthy matter We strive for beauty and balance, the sensual over the sentimental. Janet Fitch oleanders balance sensual Dawn has a way of casting a pall on any night magic. Janet Fitch magic dawn night Pick a better verb. Most people use twenty verbs to describe everything from a run in their stocking to the explosion of an A-bomb. Janet Fitch writing running people Appealing to the five senses is the feature that will always set writing apart from the visual media. A good writer will tell us what the world smells like, what the textures are, what the sounds are, what the light looks like, what the weather is. Janet Fitch media light writing The word rattled in my head like rocks in an oatmeal box. Janet Fitch boxes oatmeal rocks If this was a sandalwood pyre she would have thrown herself in and this paper she'd become would have caught fire and she and him could sail away like two birds. Janet Fitch fire bird two This involves more than I can discuss here, but do it. Read the writers of great prose dialogue-people like Robert Stone and Joan Didion. Compression, saying as little as possible, making everything carry much more than is actually said. Conflict. Dialogue as part of an ongoing world, not just voices in a dark room. Never say the obvious. Skip the meet and greet. Janet Fitch voice dark people A couple of times, I could have turned a trick. But I didn't want to start. I knew how it would play. When you started thinking it was easy, you were forgetting what it cost. Janet Fitch couple play thinking Your protagonist is your reader’s portal into the story. The more observant he or she can be, the more vivid will be the world you’re creating. They don’t have to be super-educated, they just have to be mentally active. Keep them looking, thinking, wondering, remembering. Janet Fitch creating stories thinking What can I say about life? Do I praise it for letting you live, or damn it for allowing the rest? Janet Fitch damn praise life
