Writing is a miserable, awful business. Stay with it. It is better than anything in the world. Ann Patchett More Quotes by Ann Patchett More Quotes From Ann Patchett Some people are born to make great art and others are born to appreciate it. … It is a kind of talent in itself, to be an audience, whether you are the spectator in the gallery or you are listening to the voice of the world's greatest soprano. Not everyone can be the artist. There have to be those who witness the art, who love and appreciate what they have been privileged to see. Ann Patchett voice people art He realized now he was only just beginning to see the full extent to which it was his destiny to follow, to walk blindly into fates he could never understand. In fate there was reward, in turning over one's heart to God there was a magnificence that lay beyond description. At the moment one is sure that all is lost, look at what is gained! Ann Patchett fate destiny heart The tricky thing about being a writer, or about being any kind of artist, is that in addition to making art you also have to make a living. Ann Patchett kind artist art I know that there are people out there who believe we should get rid of all guns. Ann Patchett gun believe people From my table inside I watch the glamorous women outside who are lunching on Spa Cobb salads without blue cheese or dressing. The man with the bread basket wanders from table to table, lonesome as a cloud. When he comes to me his basket is full and perfectly arranged. He gives me a smile of sincere pleasure when I tell him I will take both the sourdough roll and the cheese stick. Ann Patchett clouds food men But these last months had turned him around and now Gen saw there could be as much virtue in letting go of what you knew as there had ever been in gathering new information. He worked as hard at forgetting as he had ever worked to learn. Ann Patchett information gathering letting-go Love was action. It came to you. It was not a choice. Ann Patchett choices action I wanted to eat her pain, take it into me and make it my own. Ann Patchett my-own pain wanted I can't write the book I want to write, but I can and will write the book I am capable of writing. Ann Patchett want writing book He used to say we all had a compass inside of us and what we needed to do was to find it and to follow it. Ann Patchett compass used needed For a man to know what he has when he had it, that is what makes him a fortunate man. Ann Patchett fortunate knows men Seeing images of violence - it's always about how somebody's going to kill you. Ann Patchett seeing violence No one should have to go back to the place where she had once been a girl. Ann Patchett girl should should-have To say it was a beautiful day would not begin to explain it. It was that day when the end of summer intersects perfectly with the start of fall .... [p.218 ff.] Ann Patchett summer beautiful fall Our friendship was like our writing in some ways. It was the only thing that was interesting about our otherwise dull lives. We were better off when we were together. Together we were a small society of ambition and high ideals. We were tender and patient and kind. We were not like the world at all. Ann Patchett dull-life ambition writing I know where I'm going. And if I don't know where I'm going, I don't tend to get anywhere. Ann Patchett ifs knows I think people become consumed with selling a book when they need to be consumed with writing it. Ann Patchett writing book thinking Sometimes love does not have the most honorable beginnings, and the endings, the endings will break you in half. It's everything in between we live for. Ann Patchett half doe sometimes The kind of love that offers its life so easily, so stupidly, is always the love that is not returned. Ann Patchett kinds-of-love offers kind You can't spend your whole life in front of a screen. Ann Patchett whole-life screens whole
