Nothing teaches great writing like the very best books do. Yet, good teachers often help students cross that bridge, and I have to say that I had a few extraordinary English teachers in high school whom I still credit for their guidance. Julia Glass More Quotes by Julia Glass More Quotes From Julia Glass When it comes to life, we spin our own yarn, and where we end up is really, in fact, where we always intended to be. Julia Glass yarn destiny life Now is almost always the better choice. You never know about later. Julia Glass choices knows Never talk yourself out of knowing you're in love or into thinking that you are. Julia Glass knowing thinking Knowing and understanding the people we love most is a process that continues well beyond their deaths... and is never complete. Julia Glass understanding people And then there's the personal question so many of Lassie's fans want to ask: Is he allowed on the furniture? Of course he is-but, then, he's the one who paid for it. Julia Glass personal-question training dog Time plays like an accordion in the way it can stretch out and compress itself in a thousand melodic ways. Months on end may pass blindingly in a quick series of chords, open-shut, together-apart; and then a single melancholy week may seem like a year's pining, one long unfolding note. Julia Glass play long years I see life as increasingly complex, vivid, colorful, crazy, chaotic. That's the world I write about...the world I live in. Julia Glass crazy writing world I love meeting booksellers and readers and hearing how they've read and received my stories. Often I'm surprised by which characters they've loved best, what scenes have stayed with them, what connections they've felt between my characters' lives and theirs. Julia Glass meetings scene character I'd rather be pleasantly surprised than fatally disappointed. Julia Glass disappointed expectations Mind who you love. For that matter, mind how you are loved. Julia Glass matter mind When most of us talk to our dogs, we tend to forget that they're not people. Julia Glass poodles dog people Writing fiction is a resolutely solitary pastime, and I love being with people, so the public side of being an author is, to me, the reward for all the private time invested. And I love teaching to a fault; I have a hard time not giving away a lot of my own writing energy to my students. Julia Glass teaching writing love-is Of all the virtues, discretion began to seem the most rewarding: it kept people guessing and sometimes, by default, admiring. Julia Glass guessing sometimes people It's odd to spend your vacation with someone else's music especially when you're alone. You're free to let loose, unobserved, but someone else has chosen the words you belt out in private, the rythms you can dance to like a fool. Julia Glass vacation fool odd My publisher is generous with deadlines, which are never set in stone. Some writers need that pressure, but I am more productive when there's less panic. Julia Glass generous productive deadline But things change, of course, and so do the ways in which people see themselves. Julia Glass things-change people way Thanks to Granna, Werner and Walter had grown up to be highly functioning, productive citizens - but if you were to ask Walter, Werner had a far easier time of it and lived his life with the sanctified nonchalance of those who will do anything to avoid dissecting their souls. Julia Glass nonchalance citizens soul I grew up in a home where animals were ever-present and often dominated our lives. There were always horses, dogs, and cats, as well as a revolving infirmary of injured wildlife being nursed by my sister the aspiring vet. Without any conscious intention on my part, animals come to play a significant role in my fiction: in Three Junes, a parrot and a pack of collies; in The Whole World Over, a bulldog named The Bruce. To dog lovers, by the way, I recommend My Dog Tulip by J. R. Ackerley -- by far the best 'animal book' I've ever read. Julia Glass horse dog book I, too, seem to be a connoisseur of rain, but it does not fill me with joy; it allows me to steep myself in a solitude I nurse like a vice I've refused to vanquish. Julia Glass nurse rain joy There you are, diligently swimming a straight line, minding the form of your strokes, when you look up and see, always a shock, the currents you can't even feel have pulled you off course. Julia Glass swimming lines looks
