One must not be shy where language is concerned. Ann Patchett More Quotes by Ann Patchett More Quotes From Ann Patchett Hope is a horrible thing, you know. I don't know who decided to package hope as a virtue because it's not. It's a plague. Hope is like walking around with a fishhook in your mouth and somebody just keeps pulling it and pulling it. Ann Patchett horriblevirtuemouths Coming back is the thing that enables you to see how all the dots in your life are connected, how one decision leads you another, how one twist of fate, good or bad, brings you to a door that later takes you to another door, which aided by several detours--long hallways and unforeseen stairwells--eventually puts you in the place you are now. Ann Patchett fatedoorslong It's easier to love a woman when you can't understand a word she's saying. Ann Patchett easier If a person has never given writing a try, they assume that a brilliant idea is hard to come by. But really, even if it takes some digging, ideas are out there. Just open your eyes and look at the world. Writing the ideas down, it turns out, is the real trick. Ann Patchett eyerealwriting reading is a private act, private even from the person who wrote the book. Once the novel is out there, the author is beside the point. The reader and the book have their own relationship now, and should be left alone to work things out for themselves. Ann Patchett readingshouldbook Why is it that we understand playing the cello will require work, but we attribute writing to the magic of inspiration? Ann Patchett magicinspirationwriting In this life we love who we love. There were some stories in which facts were very nearly irrelevant. Ann Patchett this-lifestoriesfacts I used to do everything to keep a wall up around myself and keep my life quiet so that I could write. Ann Patchett wallwritingquiet Because of her singing they all went away feeling moved, feeling comforted, feeling, perhaps, the slightest tremors of faith. Ann Patchett movedsingingfeelings When well told, a story captured the subtle movement of change. If a novel was a map of a country, a story was the bright silver pin that marked the crossroads. Ann Patchett movementstoriescountry I will write my way into another life. Ann Patchett another-lifewritingway I always used to be an inside person, and now I'm an outside person. Ann Patchett used-to-beusedpersons The quality of gifts depends on the sincerity of the giver. Ann Patchett giversincerityquality You can't be a good person when you're writing and a bad person to your husband or a bad friend. You can't be a jerk in order to be a good writer. You can't say, "I'm too busy writing to be political." You are one person. You are the same person in every aspect of your life, and you have to be a responsible person in every aspect of your life. Ann Patchett politicalhusbandwriting I was very influenced by The Magic Mountain. It's a book that had a huge impact on me. I loved that as a shape for a novel: put a bunch of people in a beautiful place, give them all tuberculosis, make them all stay in a fur sleeping bag for several years and see what happens. Ann Patchett sleepbeautifulbook I really do think that our subconscious gets corrupted with fear, and fear is how news media - all media - makes us [watch] long enough to get to the Tide commercial. That's all it's about. Generating fear so that we can buy the proper laundry detergent. Ann Patchett medialongthinking When you get divorced and remarried, nobody gets discarded. Everybody is still there. Even if their storyline is not directly yours. Ann Patchett divorceddiscardedstills Updike and Bellow and Roth were my three favorite writers when I was young and throughout my life. Ann Patchett threeyoung Write because you love the art and the discipline, not because you're looking to sell something. Ann Patchett disciplinewritingart [I remember going] to a hotel gym at six o'clock in the morning, and the television was on, and it's some drama in which two men have clearly kidnapped a woman. They're interrogating her, and they put a plastic bag over her head. They're suffocating her, and I'm thinking, It's six o'clock in the morning! Why does anybody need to see this? How can I find the off switch? Ann Patchett morningdramamen
