We all - in the end - die in medias res. In the middle of a story. Of many stories. Mona Simpson More Quotes by Mona Simpson More Quotes From Mona Simpson We have all these cultural assumptions about love. People get hurt, and we say, 'Oh, it's no one's fault.' Mona Simpson say hurt love people I eventually made the reunion with my father that I'd used as a default daydream throughout my childhood, but by then, we'd both outgrown the only relationship we could have had to each other. I was over 30 by the time I met him again and no longer needed a father. Mona Simpson childhood time relationship father I left the Midwest when I was twelve years old, and I haven't lived in a small town since. Mona Simpson old small left small-town In our national mythology, we seem to include only one-way migrations to the great capitol cities. The journey from the small Wisconsin town or Minnesota city to Chicago or New York or Los Angeles. Certainly for some people, that journey is a round trip. Mona Simpson city great journey people Gossip is essentially storytelling: storytelling about people whom we know. Mona Simpson know gossip storytelling people I read a lot of books about psychopaths. I read a wonderful book Amy Hempel gave me about the guy who created criminal profiling - a fascinating book, 'Mind Hunter.' Mona Simpson me mind wonderful book It's a different thing to write a love story now than in the time of Jane Austen, Eliot, or Tolstoy. One of the problems is that once divorce is possible, once break-ups are possible, it can all become a little less momentous. Mona Simpson problems story time love We're all looking for an authentic way to be engaged in the community, engaged in politics, engaged in national discussion - and so, we're clunky. We're all clunky. But it's better than not doing it. Mona Simpson looking politics community way I'm a believer in using whatever works for fiction, but mostly, that's not life. Mona Simpson whatever believer life fiction I grew up as an only child with a single mother. Because we were poor and because I knew my father had emigrated from Syria, I imagined he looked like Omar Sharif. Mona Simpson child poor mother father I didn't know much about computers. I still worked on a manual Olivetti typewriter. Mona Simpson typewriter about computers know The lawyer refused to tell me my brother's name, and my colleagues started a betting pool. The leading candidate: John Travolta. I secretly hoped for a literary descendant of Henry James - someone more talented than I: someone brilliant without even trying. Mona Simpson me colleagues lawyer brother I've never felt powerful enough to write a true political novel, or deeply knowledgeable enough to draw a character like, say, Tolstoy's Prince Kutuzov. Mona Simpson true never political character I suppose 'My Hollywood' is only as politically meaningful as it is deeply inside the least powerful of its characters. I wanted it to reveal scenes of subtle exploitation, odd instances of accidental power and challenges to decency specific to its time, but also impulses of generosity that transcend our particular era's messes. Mona Simpson powerful power challenges time When I was in high school in Los Angeles, my mother, who was a speech therapist, agreed to stay over the weekend with one of her clients and his little sister while the parents went away on vacation. She brought me along. Mona Simpson parents me mother school I felt like any other American kid. I already worked at a steady job as an ice cream scooper, but I didn't feel less in any way than my more affluent friends from school. Mona Simpson feel job friends school I've never had an exclusive relationship to a room where I write. I used to want one. Mona Simpson room never want relationship In my 30s, I wrote in the back house of a ramshackle Spanish Revival we rented across from the ocean in the Santa Monica Canyon. I wrote thousands of pages there, but in order to see another adult human being, I had to steal out through the brambly side of the house, along the driveway down to the street. Mona Simpson street down ocean house Instead of a dedicated room, my best trigger is the actual habit of reading over the texts from the day before. Marking. Changing. Fussing. This ritual amounts to a habit of trust. Trust that I can make it better. That if I keep trying, I will come closer to something true. Mona Simpson best day trust reading I grew up with a single mother, and although we didn't have a lot of money, she cared a great deal about what we ate. We were the original health-food family. We shopped at what were called health-food stores before Whole Foods - everything came from bins. Mona Simpson great family money mother
