Work isn't meaningful just because you spend your life doing it. Anthony Marra More Quotes by Anthony Marra More Quotes From Anthony Marra Happiness came in moments of unpredictable loveliness. Anthony Marra lovelinessunpredictablemoments Nothing, she now knew, could be defined in exclusion, and every bug, pencil, and grass blade was a dictionary in itself, requiring the definitions of all things to fulfill its own. Anthony Marra exclusionbugsdefinitions Sleep just a while longer, that's it, where else can you go where you neither suffer nor cause suffering. Anthony Marra causessufferingsleep What parts had she discarded for the sake of her sanity? What had she cut from herself? Had he stared into her pupils he would have emerged, bewildered and blinking, on the far side of the earth. Was he awed by her? Absolutely. Did he respect her? Unequivocally. Want to be anything like her? No, never, not at all. Anthony Marra cuttingearthwant It's stupid. There are maps to show you how to get to the place where you want to be but no maps that show you how to get to the time when you want to be. Anthony Marra mapsstupidwant She wouldn't climb out of the bed for her sister, but she had climbed into a crater. She wouldn't cross a room, but she had crossed a continent. Anthony Marra sisterbedrooms How often is immense sadness mistaken for courage? Anthony Marra mistakenoften-issadness The short story that eventually grew into Constellation was the first fiction set in Russia that I'd ever written, and that was right around the time I was giving up on a doomed, never-to-be-seen first novel. While I saw it could be something bigger, in hindsight fortuitous timing was as responsible as anything. Anthony Marra sawsrussiagiving-up She was fluent in four languages and yet her fists against the rusted hood were the fullest articulation of her defeat. Anthony Marra fourlanguagefists You are a coward,' she said, and with that one word wrote a denunciation, a biography, and a prophecy. Anthony Marra cowardbiographiessaid You are mine. I recognize you. We twist our souls around each other's miseries. It is that which makes us family. Anthony Marra twistsmiserysoul From personal experience, I completely agree that it is often easier to go for monotone sadness. When I was starting out, I wrote a gazillion short stories that ran the gamut of human suffering - drug addiction, child abuse, terminal illness, loved ones dying by all manner of misfortune, etc. In hindsight, it's clear that I mistook the power of the situation for the power of the story. Anthony Marra addictionsadnesschildren He was losing her incrementally. It might be a few stray hairs listless on the pillow, or the crescents of bitten fingernails tossed behind the headboard, or a dark shape dissolving in soap. As a net is no more than holes tied together, they were bonded by what was no longer there." (ARC p. 63) Anthony Marra darktogetherhair We all know to feel sympathy for those who've suffered from drug addiction, child abuse, and terminal illness, so the set up elicits an emotional response that the story itself very well may not earn. Energy generated by the fiction itself is likely to produce more light. Anthony Marra emotionallightchildren We tend to associate humor with lightheartedness, but really, it's a rhetorical mode than can be applied to any subject. It was through researching Chechnya that I came to understand this. Anthony Marra rhetoricalchechnyasubjects For the uninitiated, 'Calvin and Hobbes' is a daily comic strip detailing the antics of an unruly six-year-old and his misanthropic stuffed tiger. The boy, whose vocabulary is packed with more 10-dollar words than a GRE flashcard set, is named after John Calvin, the Reformation-era theologian who preached the doctrine of predestination. Anthony Marra tigerboywordsdaily Bill Watterson argued with his medium even as he eclipsed it. He was all too aware that no artistic expression better exemplifies our disposable consumer culture than the daily newspaper comic strip: today's masterpiece is tomorrow's birdcage lining. Anthony Marra dailytomorrowtodayculture I joined a writing class at a nearby community center, where I was the youngest participant by about 40 years. Once a week, I'd funnel down a staircase and join the dozen retirees crowded in folding chairs around a table to discuss one another's stories. Anthony Marra staircasedowncommunitywriting Ever since studying in Russia as a college student, I had been in a long-distance, one-sided love affair with Chechnya's remarkable history, culture and rugged natural beauty. Anthony Marra natural-beautybeautylovehistory Research is not an obstacle, something to be frightened of. It can be one of the real joys of writing. Anthony Marra somethingresearchrealwriting
