You put a character out there and you're in their power. You're in trouble if they're in yours. Ann Beattie More Quotes by Ann Beattie More Quotes From Ann Beattie Italics provide a wonderful advantage: you see, right away, that the words are in a rush. When something exists at a slant, you can't help but consider irony. Ann Beattie irony wonderful helping the real killer was when you married the wrong person but had the right children. Ann Beattie marriage real children Women are obviously much more discriminated against than men in many ways. Ann Beattie men way If you could have a book called My Favorite Six Stories, I don't think I'd have trouble doing that. Ann Beattie stories book thinking I've spent my life supporting myself. Ann Beattie I think that I'm serious, but I don't think that I'm inordinately bleak. Ann Beattie bleak serious thinking I could name a few songs and say exactly what summer they came out and what boy I thought I was in love with when I was fourteen years old, but I think that music used to be really more a part of the culture when people went out dancing in a different way than they do now. Ann Beattie summer song boys Falling in Place was meant to be very much rooted in a place and time, and music was a part of that. Ann Beattie place-and-time were-meant-to-be falling-in-love It's gratifying that it does; I love to give readings. Ann Beattie giving-up reading doe When I was teaching at Harvard in the 1970s, I went to Project Incorporated in Cambridge and took photography classes. I didn't even know how to aim the camera in those days. Ann Beattie photography teaching class I like a lot of Margaret Atwood, I like much of Alice Munro. Again, if you were to ask me about male writers, there's often a novel I admire, but not all of their works. Ann Beattie glowing admire males I must say also that it's never worked to my disadvantage that I have long, blond hair. Ann Beattie disadvantages hair long When I lived in New York, not only did I have safety locks on the door but I had the music going, keeping the city at a distance, trying to find creative time and peace and so forth. Ann Beattie distance cities new-york Quite often my narrator or protagonist may be a man, but I'm not sure he's the more interesting character, or if the more complex character isn't the woman. Ann Beattie character men interesting Much of what happens in Love Always is really from overheard conversations in the Russian Tea Room. It's an improvisation of the way certain Hollywood agents think and talk to each other. Ann Beattie hollywood tea thinking It's interesting, though, that in daily life, I think of myself as being relatively unobservant. Ann Beattie daily-life interesting thinking It's often been said that I'm an extremely depressing, cynical writer. I've never known what to make of that. Ann Beattie cynical depressing said I feel that these stories are being written to articulate certain confusions and disappointments, and I do mean to shake up the reader, and I do hope they're on target. Ann Beattie feel being target hope I've been in this business for a long time, and I no longer think that anything that I do by way of clarification is ever going to eradicate the mistakes. Ann Beattie mistakes business time long Well, a few years ago I think I could have given you a more enthusiastic answer about that but in the last few years, for the first time in my life, I really haven't listened to much music. I used to work with music on and now I don't. Ann Beattie music work time life