Nothing is as important as a likable narrator. Nothing holds a story together better. Ethan Canin More Quotes by Ethan Canin More Quotes From Ethan Canin The historical background is one of the easier aspects of writing a novel. Far more difficult is dreaming up the smaller, character-based scenes, scenes that rise entirely from one's own imagination. Ethan Canin rise difficult imagination writing One of my favorite ways to find fictional inspiration, by the way, is to browse historical timelines. I also like world atlases - any country with a squiggly coastline seems to inspire me, as do visual dictionaries, those reclusive creatures of the reference shelf. Ethan Canin me country way world I no longer practice medicine, but I can say that, for me, medicine was easier - and certainly less emotionally turbulent - than writing. Ethan Canin me medicine i-can practice In medicine, there's a fairly large but still finite body of knowledge that you need at hand for most of your daily work. It takes a few years to learn it, but once it's there, it's there. With writing, on the other hand, every new book - indeed, every new story - is a fresh and terrifying reinvention of everything. Ethan Canin daily you work knowledge No one knows why books do well. Ethan Canin why books well knows It's nice when critics say 'Emperor of the Air' is an important book of stories. Ethan Canin say nice important book Fame is a problem of perspective. Ethan Canin perspective problem fame I was never writing for commercial success. It's nice that it has come, but it is not important. Ethan Canin never nice important success In medical school, you're taught to write in this convoluted, Latinate way. I knew the vocabulary as well as anyone, but I would write kidney instead of nephric. I insisted on using English. Ethan Canin you medical way school I don't have a pen name, so I'm thinking of getting a doctor's name. What would you call that, a stethoscope name? Ethan Canin doctor name you thinking I like certain people's work better than my own. Ethan Canin better my-own work people It used to be you sat up in your attic and wrote and went down to a local cafe and talked with people there. Ethan Canin cafe down you people Books were king, but now movies are king, and books are sort of ignored. So now there's no sense of a welcoming community where you live. Ethan Canin king live you community What's more interesting than the arc of lives? Ethan Canin arc than more interesting 'How does your life turn out?' That's the ultimate novelistic question to me. Ethan Canin question your me life I don't think success makes one confident. I think it has more to do with character than circumstance. Ethan Canin confident think success character If you try to write a novel in L.A., you're a chump; everyone is speeding by, and you're driving a rickshaw. Ethan Canin everyone try you driving No matter what writers say, most stories are about ourselves. The facts might change a little, but not much. Ethan Canin say change matter facts Families tend to artificially divide the world, imbuing one member with all the attributes and another with all the faults. But it's never that way. Ethan Canin never faults way world When I write, I can become this ecstatic, crazy fellow, hearing the voices and just loosening up and letting them grow. Ethan Canin grow just i-can crazy