To ask a novelist to talk about his novels is like asking somebody to cook about their dancing. Jim Crace More Quotes by Jim Crace More Quotes From Jim Crace There's solace in the thought that I will never finish missing her. Jim Crace missing-her missing-someone missing There is no remedy for death--or birth--except to hug the spaces in between. Live loud. Live wide. Live tall. Jim Crace hug birth space ...crushed between the fears of going forward and the dread of going back. Jim Crace crushed dread These are the stories that we tell ourselves and only ourselves, and they are better left unshared. Jim Crace left stories Secrets are like pregnancies hereabouts. You can hide them for a while but then they will start screaming. Jim Crace secret pregnancy Retiring from writing is not to retire from life, but retiring from writing is to avoid the inevitable bitterness which a writing career is bound to deliver as its end product, in almost every case. Jim Crace bitterness careers writing My father had osteomyelitis-his left arm was withered between his elbow and his shoulder ... . But the amputation of a Stone Age man called Leaf, a stoneworker, does not relate to my father at all. Jim Crace age men father I was captivated by Sherrie Flick's meticulous and intelligent study of Margaret and Vivette, and the men they share. Reconsidering Happiness is a courageously intimate novel about the young women of modern America, their friendships, their betrayals, and their anxious cravings for everything from sex to pastry. Jim Crace betrayal men sex Try pitching a story of happiness to your editors and their toes are going to curl up. Jim Crace curls editors trying I was sick and tired of reading other people's epigraphs. They all seemed to be in ancient Greek, middle French or, when they were translated, they never seemed to relate to the book at hand. Basically, they seemed to be there just to baffle you and to impress you with how smart the writer is. Jim Crace you smart tired people I adore falseness. I don't want you to tell me accurately what happened yesterday. I want you to lie about it, to exaggerate, to entertain me. Jim Crace lie me you yesterday Almost everyone who's been to primary school in Britain has had towels put on their heads to play the shepherds in the nativity play. Jim Crace everyone been play school For 'The Gift of Stones,' I spent an afternoon chasing a flock of Canadian geese. Jim Crace gift afternoon chasing stones There is no reason why the Louvre should be your favourite gallery just because it has the grandest collections in France, any more than Kew should necessarily be a favourite garden because it has the largest assemblage of plants, or Tesco your chosen shop because it has the widest variety of canned beans. Jim Crace plants just-because your garden When you start a novel, it is always like pushing a boulder uphill. Then, after a while, to mangle the metaphor, the boulder fills with helium and becomes a balloon that carries you the rest of the way to the top. You just have to hold your nerve and trust to narrative. Jim Crace rest you trust way Storytelling enables us to play out decisions before we make them, to plan routes before we take them, to work out the campaign before we start the war, to rehearse the phrases we're going to use to please or placate our wives and husbands. Jim Crace start play work war I'm interested in taking hold of the dull truth narrative and finding inside it the transcendence and spirituality and hysteria normally associated with religion. Jim Crace inside finding truth religion I'd dearly love to write a political book that changed the hearts and minds of men and women. Jim Crace women love men book I want to live in a city where the future is being mapped out. Jim Crace live city future want I invent words you think you've heard - spray hopper or swag beetle. Jim Crace words think you spray
