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I Wrote Before I Could Write. I Got My Hands On A Journal, Maybe A Hand-me-down; I Had Three Older Siblings. My First Entries Are In The Handwriting Of The Sister Closets In Age (5 Years My Senior). She Must Have Gotten Tired Of My Dictations Because She Gave Up And Then My Blocky Scrawl Shows Up. I Wrote Plays As A Kid Mostly.

-Julianna Baggott

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I Wrote Before I

Julianna Baggott

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I Wrote Before I Could Write. I Got My Hands On A Journal, Maybe A Hand-me-down; I Had Three Older Siblings. My First Entries Are In The Handwriting Of The Sister Closets In Age (5 Years My Senior). She Must Have Gotten Tired Of My Dictations Because She Gave Up And Then My Blocky Scrawl Shows Up. I Wrote Plays As A Kid Mostly.

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My Oldest Sister Was An Actress Living In Nyc By The Time I Was Ten, And Desperately Wanted To Be The One In Charge Of The Words.

When A Colleague Of Mine Had A Notable New York Times Book, I Said, Turn One Of The Chapters In The Collection Into A Pitch For A Novel And Sell It To Your Publisher.

I've Left The Church - For Many Reasons That I've Written About Publicly - But It's Still A Large Part Of My Identity, And I Still Have My Faith, If Not My Church.

But There It Is: Everyone Is Alone, For Life, And Maybe That's Not Such A Bad Thing.

I Feel Too Much. It's Like Being Drummed To Death From Within. You Know?

I Didn't Start Writing So That I Could More Deeply Know Myself. I Was Bored Of Myself, My Life, My Childhood, My Hometown. I Started Writing As A Way To Know Others, To Get Away From Myself.

I Believe That One Of The Most Damning Things About Our Culture Is The Adage To Never Talk Religion And Politics. Because We Don't Model This Discourse At The Dinner Table And At Thanksgiving, We Don't Know How To Do It Well And We're Not Teaching Our Children About The World And About How To Discuss It.

Love Is Selfless, It Is A Weakness, A Giving In, A Constant Falling.

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Omission Is A Sin Only If, In The Process Of Deceiving, You Forget The Truth. Lying Is A Sin Only If, In The Process, The Lie Becomes The Only Truth.

I Believe We're Brutes, But Then, Miraculously, There Are Those Among Us Who Stand Up Against That Brutishness And Remind Us Of The Goodness We're Capable Of.

Being Cross-genre, You Can Encounter An Image And Decide Not Only How To Best Express It But What Form Would Express It Best.

Writing Stories Is The Habit Of Lying Put To Good Use.

What Does It Mean To Be Catholic And Not A Catholic? I Feel Adrift, Homeless. My Catholic Imagination Allows Me To See The Soul As A Lit Breath, Seeking The Divine. It Persists.

I Am Deeply Catholic And Always Will Be, But I'm No Longer A Member Of The Church. I Left In 2003 Because Of The Sex Abuse Scandal.

If I'd Learned Nothing Else, It Was This: If You Want To Be A Great Writer, Be A Man. If You Can't Be A Man, Write Like One.

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She Glances Back Before Stepping Into The Alley, And She Catches Her Grandfather Looking At Her The Way He Does Sometimes--as If She's Already Gone, As If He's Practicing Sorrow.

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People Know The Difference Between Good And Evil In Their Hearts-if They Search Them. Religions Twist Good And Evil. Their Differences Are The Kind That Need To Be Taught Because They Aren't Natural.

I Am Politically Pro-choice, But Personally Pro-life. I Have My Faith But Refuse To Force It On The World At Large - Especially This World, So Brutal And Unjust. I Cannot Make These Wrenching Personal Life And Death Decisions For Others - Nor Do I Believe They Should Be Made By A Church Run By Childless Men.

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I Wrote Before I Could Write. I Got My Hands On A Journal, Maybe A Hand-me-down; I Had Three Older Siblings. My First Entries Are In The Handwriting Of The Sister Closets In Age (5 Years My Senior). She Must Have Gotten Tired Of My Dictations Because She Gave Up And Then My Blocky Scrawl Shows Up. I Wrote Plays As A Kid Mostly.

I Prefer A Cluttered Workspace.

I Don't Have A Favorite. I Need Different Genres At Different Times.

It's Not That I Bounce Ideas Off Of My Children As Much As It Is That Having Children Has Had A Profound Effect On The Way I See The World. They Have Mined My Soul. They've Made Me A Better Person And Therefore A More Empathetic Writer.

Women Are Constantly Underestimated In Our Power, Our Reach, Our Collective Pull.

Don't Shame The Young For Releasing Their Pent-up Fear.

A Good Novel Doesn't Just Transcend The Boundaries Of Its Target Market - It Knows Nothing About Target Markets.

I Try Not To Divide Plot And Character. I Get To Know A Character By What They Want And Fear And How Those Internal Forces Play Out In Their Lives.

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I Prefer True Over Happy Now.

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Beauty, You Can Find It Here If You Look Hard Enough.

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Weakness, Like Not Being Able To Bury The Past. Weakness, Like Not Giving Up Hope When You Know You Should.

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