Writing and rewriting are the same thing to me. I don't believe what Allen Ginsberg said that "first thought, then - " I just don't believe that. Lynne Tillman More Quotes by Lynne Tillman More Quotes From Lynne Tillman Whatever the style is, I want to have a sense that the writer is thinking, and really trying to get at something, and that there's a sense of discovery as the writing goes along. Lynne Tillman writing discovery thinking You have to create the space for the possibility of people speaking as they do. If writing is supposed to lead us in any way or educate or suggest other ways of being, it can't do so by simply reflecting what's considered to be realistic. Lynne Tillman space writing people I'm interested in reality but I'm not interested in realism at all. I'm interested in the ways that I think people want to relate. Lynne Tillman reality people thinking I like to invent the dialogue that I want to have heard. Lynne Tillman dialogue heard want When something in a sequence is edited, if you repeat an image, but in a different place, the effect is different. Because the brain is remembering, and the different juxtaposition triggers other memories, thoughts, ideas, and so on. Lynne Tillman brain memories ideas I don't think anybody says to Coetzee or Dostoyevsky or Kafka, "Your characters aren't likeable." It's not about your character winning a popularity contest. That's not the writer's job. Lynne Tillman winning jobs character As a reader myself, which precedes my being a writer, of course, I read in order to enter another world. Lynne Tillman reader order world You learn to read in kindergarten or first grade, and suddenly there's this other world that isn't your family or your school or your friends. It's something else. Lynne Tillman other-worlds school firsts I think many writers really believe that being published is a traumatic experience. Lynne Tillman traumatic-experiences believe thinking It's not the writer who determines how good she is anyway. Writers don't determine that. It's readers who determine that. Lynne Tillman determine reader I think it's very hard to reconcile oneself to the notion that it may not matter what you think if you still want to write. Lynne Tillman writing may thinking In depression, you're flattened. Your energy level is gone. When I'm anxious, I tend to have more energy. But it depends on the nature of the anxiety. The anxiety to finish something would seem to be more productive than the anxiety that says, "You're feeling sick." Lynne Tillman anxiety sick feelings You could say this word is better to use than that word, this sentence is good and that sentence isn't. But you don't determine the value of your work for other people. Lynne Tillman determine use people It wasn't that I wanted to be an artist. But when I took my first drawing class with the painter Doug Ohlson, I could never finish a drawing. Lynne Tillman drawing artist class I do think we think repetitively. It's so hard to get certain thoughts out of your head. If you're angry at a friend, you're going to keep going back to that conversation. Lynne Tillman certain conversation thinking
