Nothing is more fortifying than learning that you have a real reader, a reader who truly responds both accurately and actively. It gives you courage, and you feel, I can crawl out on the branch a little further. It’s going to hold. Deborah Eisenberg More Quotes by Deborah Eisenberg More Quotes From Deborah Eisenberg I find it endlessly interesting, endlessly funny, the fact that we're rather arbitrarily divided up into these discrete humans and that your physical self, your physical attributes, your moment of history and the place where you were born determine who you are as much as all that indefinable stuff that's inside of you. Deborah Eisenberg moment you funny history It's almost uncanny to receive a prize named in honor of Bernard Malamud. I must have been in my early teens when 'The Magic Barrel' was published and I first read it. Deborah Eisenberg first prize magic honor It's much easier to read the stories that have a lot of dialogue; of course, they flow much more easily into speech. Deborah Eisenberg more dialogue speech flow I find I often just fall into a stone-like sleep, right in the middle of the day, just sort of clonk. I can't work for extended periods when I'm beginning something. But if I'm at the end of something, I can work on for hours and hours and hours. Deborah Eisenberg beginning day work sleep I've never really thought of writing books. I've never thought about stories as a part of a collection. Deborah Eisenberg books never thought writing I actually came to New York because it was very tolerant. You know, it seems preposterous, ludicrous thing to say in an interview, but I came for the anonymity particularly. Deborah Eisenberg say new know you I just want to be on my own branch twittering. Deborah Eisenberg own just my-own want We're all walking around trying to deal with a certain amount of shame, to repress it. And we restrict our mental lives to smaller and smaller areas. Deborah Eisenberg mental shame walking trying I'm a very spoiled writer. I need to be indolent, to waste a lot of paper. I'm inefficient. Deborah Eisenberg need spoiled waste paper I'm not used to interviews. People don't generally interview waitresses. Deborah Eisenberg interview interviews used people I had no thought of being a writer. I never wanted to do anything. I'm tremendously lazy. Deborah Eisenberg never thought being lazy I had written a story. I wrote the story out of some desperation, really, and I didn't know I was writing a story, and it took me years. And when I finished, a friend of mine had the idea that the story should be read as a monologue in a theater. Deborah Eisenberg friend story me writing For me, most writing consists of siphoning out useless pre-story matter, cutting and cutting and cutting, what seems to be endless rewriting, and what is entailed in all that is patience, and waiting, and false starts, and dead ends, and really, in a way, nerve. Deborah Eisenberg me waiting patience way To be interested in short stories, you have to be interested in fiction as an art form. Deborah Eisenberg short you fiction art I always need huge amounts of time to do anything. Deborah Eisenberg need anything always time One of the amazing things about writing fiction is that you do get to be other people. Deborah Eisenberg amazing you writing people I happen to be a 64-year-old woman who lives in Manhattan, so on and so forth, but am I the sum total of my sort of bodily coordinates? Well, of course not. Deborah Eisenberg happen well woman who I'm constantly trying to strip away layers of perceived thought or cliche. Deborah Eisenberg away thought layers trying Of course I want to have a deliciously seductive story on the surface which will keep people engaged and amused, but primarily, I'm interested in other things. It's the texture of any given moment that fascinates me: what is really going on between people or in somebody's mind. Deborah Eisenberg me moment mind people Fiction is a report from the interior. Deborah Eisenberg report interior fiction
