Sometimes not having any idea where we’re going works out better than we could possibly have imagined. Ann Patchett More Quotes by Ann Patchett More Quotes From Ann Patchett There was such an incredible logic to kissing, such a metal-to-magnet pull between two people that it was a wonder that they found the strength to prevent themselves from succumbing every second. Rightfully, the world should be a whirlpool of kissing into which we sank and never found the strength to rise up again. Ann Patchett kissing love two It turns out that the distance from head to hand, from wafting butterfly to entomological specimen, is achieved through regular practice. What begins as something like a dream will in fact stay a dream forever unless you have the tools and the discipline to bring it out. Ann Patchett butterfly distance dream I was starting to wonder if I was ready to be a writer, not someone who won prizes, got published and was given the time and space to work, but someone who wrote as a course of life. Maybe writing wouldn't have any rewards. Maybe the salvation I would gain through work would only be emotional and intellectual. Wouldn't that be enough, to be a waitress who found an hour or two hidden in every day to write? Ann Patchett emotional writing two I don't really do anything with the Internet except check my email. I have a much higher opinion of humanity because of that. Ann Patchett email opinion humanity People always say, "Can writing be taught?" I always think, I can teach you how to write a better sentence, how to do dialogue, how to do character, but I can't teach you how to be a decent person, and I can't teach you how to have something to say. Ann Patchett writing character thinking Art stands on the shoulders of craft, which means that to get to the art, you must master the craft. Ann Patchett crafts mean art It makes you wonder. All the brilliant things we might have done with our lives if only we suspected we knew how. Ann Patchett brilliant done might Coming back is the thing that enables you to see how all the dots in your life are connected. Ann Patchett dots coming-back writing There was no one clear point of loss. It happened over and over again in a thousand small ways and the only truth there was to learn was that there was no getting used to it. Ann Patchett used loss way Staying within the world of a novel gives us the ability to be quiet and alone, two skills that are disappearing faster than the polar icecaps. Ann Patchett skills giving two It's always better to have too much to read than not enough. Ann Patchett too-much enough My novels are very much the same, as I think many people's novels are. No matter how hard I try to do otherwise, the books always wind up being "a group of strangers are thrown together by circumstance and form a society." Ann Patchett trying book thinking I think that people all grow up and have their same personalities, but you can say, "Oh, I can see the roots of this personality, which I didn't like, but then you grew up, and I can still see you as that person, but I do really like you now." Which is sort of how I feel about children - I mean, about children who I knew when I was a child and grew up with, and they're still my friends, and children that I know as children who I see growing up, and every year I like them more. Ann Patchett growing-up mean children Writing is a miserable, awful business. Stay with it. It is better than anything in the world. Ann Patchett awful writing world The Swedish he knew was mostly from Bergman films. He had learned it as a college student, matching the subtitles to the sounds. In Swedish, he could only converse on the darkest of subjects. Ann Patchett matching college sound Reading fiction is important. It is a vital means of imagining a life other than our own, which in turn makes us more empathetic beings. Ann Patchett important reading mean I always feel it is a shortcoming of mine as a reader and as a writer that I frankly need to like somebody. Ann Patchett reader feels needs If you want to write and can't figure out how to do it, try this: Pick an amount of time to sit at your desk every day. Start with twenty minutes, say, and work up as quickly as possible to as much time as you can spare. Do you really want to write? Sit for two hours a day. Ann Patchett writing trying two I am a totally public person. Ann Patchett persons There was no time for kissing but she wanted him to know that in the future there would be. A kiss in so much loneliness was like a hand pulling you up out of the water, scooping you up from a place of drowning and into the reckless abundance of air. A kiss, another kiss. Ann Patchett kissing loneliness air
