Stupid truth, always resisting simplicity John Green More Quotes by John Green More Quotes From John Green That is, to me at least, one of the most helpful and useful things books do for us: They are generous enough to allow us to choose what matters to us. John Green what-matters real book I really think that reading is just as important as writing when you're trying to be a writer because it's the only apprenticeship we have, it's the only way of learning how to write a story. John Green reading writing thinking We're professional worriers. You're constantly imagining things that could go wrong and then writing about them. John Green imagining-things writing My interest as a writer is not in reflecting actual human speech, which, of course, does not occur in sentences and is totally undiagrammable. My interest is in trying to reflect the reality of experience - how we feel when we talk to each other, how we feel when we're engaging with questions that interest us. John Green writing trying reality When I think about [characters], I like to think of them in their relationships to each other. In the same way, I think that's how humans are ultimately defined. We are our relationships to one another. And a lot of what's interesting about us happens in the context of other people. John Green writing character thinking Writing fiction is an inherently political activity because people-even imaginary ones-do not live in vacuums... From Twilight to Romeo and Juliet to The Little Mermaid, no work of the imagination is truly apolitical, because the world and our hopes for it are always part of our stories. John Green twilight writing people Nostalgia is inevitably a yearning for a past that never existed and when I'm writing, there are no bees to sting me out of my sentimentality. For me at least, fiction is the only way I can even begin to twist my lying memories into something true. John Green writing memories lying One of the pitfalls about writing about illness is that it is very easy to imagine people with cancer as either these wise-beyond-their-years creatures or these sad-eyed tragic people. And the truth is, people living with cancer are very much like people who are not living with cancer. They're every bit as funny and complex and diverse as anyone else. John Green cancer wise writing 'Do you know,' he asked in a delicious accent, 'what Dom Pérignon said after inventing champagne?' 'No?' I said. 'He called out to his fellow monks, 'Come quickly: I am tasting the stars!' John Green monk wine stars Does my eye look okay to you? John Green hipster eye doe That's the thing about pain, it demands to be felt. John Green pain stars inspirational Grateful to be a little boat, full of water, still floating. John Green hipster grateful water I was a fairly shy person - not the hand raising type. John Green hipster shy hands All the things paper-thin and paper-frail, and all the people too. John Green hipster paper people You were clearly not doing your part in the clover search, perv. John Green pervs clovers hipster I am a giant squid of anger. John Green squids hipster giants It turns out that, somehow, there are a tremendous number of things to be optimistic about. John Green hipster optimistic numbers I liked Augustus Waters. I really, really really liked him. I liked the way his story ended with someone else. I liked his voice. I liked that he took existentially-fraught free throws. John Green hipster voice water My thoughts are starts I can't fathom into constellations. John Green fathom my-thoughts hipster I didn't even know what the feeling was, really, just that there was a lot of it. John Green hipster knows feelings
