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Reading Fiction Is Important. It Is A Vital Means Of Imagining A Life Other Than Our Own, Which In Turn Makes Us More Empathetic Beings.
-Ann Patchett
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Reading Fiction Is Important.

Ann Patchett
...
Reading Fiction Is Important. It Is A Vital Means Of Imagining A Life Other Than Our Own, Which In Turn Makes Us More Empathetic Beings.

Understanding the Quote: "reading fiction is important. it is a vital means of imagining a..."

This quote by Ann Patchett reflects deeply on the theme of reading. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Reading, Mean, Important, the quote offers insight, emotional clarity, and intellectual inspiration to readers worldwide.

Whether you’re a student exploring new ideas, a leader trying to motivate your team, or someone seeking direction in life — this quote provides value. It resonates because it’s more than words — it’s a bridge between experience and wisdom. It shows how Ann Patchett interprets life's core challenges and triumphs.

Lessons From the Quote

This quote teaches resilience and focus. It reminds readers that no matter where they stand in life, reflection and self-awareness lead to growth. Each word has meaning, and when studied, it becomes clear how impactful thoughtful language can be.

About Ann Patchett

Ann Patchett is celebrated for insightful thoughts on reading and mean. Their legacy lives on through writings that guide, comfort, and inspire. Discover more on their profile page.

Actionable Takeaways

  • Reflect on how this quote applies to your current life path.
  • Share the message with someone who needs inspiration.
  • Write your thoughts on this quote in a journal or blog post.
  • Use it as a daily affirmation or reminder.

Closing Thoughts

Quotes like this endure because they capture universal truths. They comfort us in solitude and empower us in groups. Carry this quote forward — live by its wisdom, share its message, and keep its essence alive.

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Reading
Mean
Important
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If A Person Has Never Given Writing A Try, They Assume That A Brilliant Idea Is Hard To Come By. But Really, Even If It Takes Some Digging, Ideas Are Out There. Just Open Your Eyes And Look At The World. Writing The Ideas Down, It Turns Out, Is The Real Trick.
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I Should Figure Out Why I'm So Much More Interested In Doing Something That I Think Is Really Hard. But, Somehow, The Thing That Is Hard For Me Feels More Noble.
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I'm Very Sentimental About Lobsters. The Last Lobster I Ate Was The Only Lobster I Cooked.
Lobster
Lasts
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You Should Not Have Assault Rifles In Your Home.
Home
Rifles
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That Is One Thing I've Learned, That It Is Possible To Really Understand Things At Certain Points, And Not Be Able To Retain Them, To Be In Utter Confusion Just A Short While Later. I Used To Think That Once You Really Knew A Thing, Its Truth Would Shine On Forever. Now It's Pretty Obvious To Me That More Often Than Not The Batteries Fade, And Sometimes What You Knew Even Goes Out With A Bang When You Try To Call On It, Just Like A Lightbulb Cracking Off When You Throw The Switch.
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Maybe The Private Life Wasn't Forever. Maybe Everyone Got It For A Little While And Then Spent The Rest Of Their Lives Remembering.
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Listen She Said, Everything Ends, Every Single Relationship You Will Ever Have In Your Lifetime Is Going To End.... I'll Die, You'll Die, You'll Get Tired Of Each Other. You Don't Always Know How It's Going To Happen, But It Is Always Going To Happen. So Stop Trying To Make Everything Permanent, It Doesn't Work. I Want You To Go Out There And Find Some Nice Man You Have No Intention Of Spending The Rest Of Your Life With. You Can Be Very, Very Happy With People You Aren't Going To Marry.
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Do You Want To Do This Thing? Sit Down And Do It. Are You Not Writing? Keep Sitting There. Does It Not Feel Right? Keep Sitting There. Think Of Yourself As A Monk Walking The Path To Enlightenment. Think Of Yourself As A High School Senior Wanting To Be A Neurosurgeon. Is It Possible? Yes. Is There Some Shortcut? Not One I've Found. Writing Is A Miserable, Awful Business. Stay With It. It Is Better Than Anything In The World.
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Whenever I Saw Her, I Felt Like I Had Been Living In Another Country, Doing Moderately Well In Another Language, And Then She Showed Up Speaking English And Suddenly I Could Speak With All The Complexity And Nuance That I Hadn't Realized Was Gone. With Lucy I Was A Native Speaker.
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Maybe That Was The Definition Of Life Everlasting: The Belief That The Next Generation Would Carry Your Work Forward.
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I Used To Do Everything To Keep A Wall Up Around Myself And Keep My Life Quiet So That I Could Write.
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I Was Very Influenced By The Magic Mountain. It's A Book That Had A Huge Impact On Me. I Loved That As A Shape For A Novel: Put A Bunch Of People In A Beautiful Place, Give Them All Tuberculosis, Make Them All Stay In A Fur Sleeping Bag For Several Years And See What Happens.
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Home, Bed, Sleep, Mother--who Knew More Beautiful Words Than These?
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Time Is The Most Extraordinary Gift For Friendship. You'll Get To Eat Your Meals Together And Study Together; In Some Cases You'll Even Sleep In The Same Room. You'll Have Time To Waste On Each Other. You'll Find Out Every Single Thing You Have In Common And Still Have Time To Catalogue All Of Your Differences. Don't Underestimate The Vital Necessity Of Friendship In Your Life Because It Is The Thing That Will Sustain You Later, When There Will Be Considerably Less Time.
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I Have Been Accused Of Being A Pollyanna, But I Think There Are Plenty Of People Dealing With The Darker Side Of Human Nature, And If I Am Going To Write About People Who Are Kind And Generous And Loving And Thoughtful, So What? In My Life I Have Met Astonishingly Good People.
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I Am The Person Who Is Appropriating Stories That Are Not Mine And Turning Them Into A Book.
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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.]
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If You Want To Write And Can't Figure Out How To Do It, Try This: Pick An Amount Of Time To Sit At Your Desk Every Day. Start With Twenty Minutes, Say, And Work Up As Quickly As Possible To As Much Time As You Can Spare. Do You Really Want To Write? Sit For Two Hours A Day.
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If You're Trying To Find Out What's Coming Next, Turn Off Everything You Own That Has An Off Switch And Listen.
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The Quality Of Gifts Depends On The Sincerity Of The Giver.
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The Timing Of The Electrical Failure Seemed Dramatic And Perfectly Correct, As If The Lights Had Said, "you Have No Need For Sight. Listen.
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Reading Fiction Is Important. It Is A Vital Means Of Imagining A Life Other Than Our Own, Which In Turn Makes Us More Empathetic Beings.
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Children
Growing Up
Mean
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Way
Used
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Writing
Ideas
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Email
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Never Be So Focused On What You're Looking For That You Overlook The Thing You Actually Find.
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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.
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Half
Sometimes
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Reading
Giving
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Unfolding
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Everyone Knows Everything Eventually.
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Virtue
Horrible
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Knows
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Looks
Want
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Purpose
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Suits
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!
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Destiny
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Offers
I'm Very Comfortable Writing.
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Comfortable
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World
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Work Out
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Writing
Ambition
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Three
Young
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Love
Kissing
Two
I Was Always On Time, I Did My Work To Exact Specifications, I Spoke When Spoken To.
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Specifications
In This Life We Love Who We Love. There Were Some Stories In Which Facts Were Very Nearly Irrelevant.
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Facts
This Life
I Always Feel It Is A Shortcoming Of Mine As A Reader And As A Writer That I Frankly Need To Like Somebody.
Needs
Reader
Feels
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Drama
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That's One Of The Many Things About Having The Bookstore That I Adore. I Can Walk Into The Store And Say To Somebody, "i'm Glad You're Reading This Book" Or "i'm Glad You're Getting This Book" Or "don't Get That Book. I Read That Book And Hated That Book. Let's Get You This Book Instead."
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Reading
Stores
Seeing Images Of Violence - It's Always About How Somebody's Going To Kill You.
Violence
Seeing
Some People Need A Huge Amount Of Attention, And They Are Worthy Of That Attention, And They're Still Exhausting.
People
Needs
Attention
Nonfiction Is Easy And Fiction Is Hard.
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Easy
I Can't Write The Book I Want To Write, But I Can And Will Write The Book I Am Capable Of Writing.
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Want
I Decided To Make My Living As A Magazine Writer. And I Found That It Was Really Easy And Fun.
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Easy
For A Man To Know What He Has When He Had It, That Is What Makes Him A Fortunate Man.
Men
Knows
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I Could Teach. I Could Wait Tables. I Could Cook In A Restaurant. Food And Teaching Were The Two Skills I Had.
Teaching
Skills
Two
If You've Had Good Gin On A Hot Day In Southern California With The People You Love, You Forget Nebraska. The Two Things Cannot Coexist. The Stronger, Better Of The Two Wins.
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Winning
Two
Maybe There Would Be A Bad Outcome For Some Of The Others, But No One Was Going To Shoot A Soprano.
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Outcomes
Sopranos
I Love A Large Cast Of Characters. That's The Way Life Is: It's Flooded With People And We Keep Them All Straight.
Character
People
Way
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Thinking
Reading Fiction Not Only Develops Our Imagination And Creativity, It Gives Us The Skills To Be Alone. It Gives Us The Ability To Feel Empathy For People We've Never Met, Living Lives We Couldn't Possibly Experience For Ourselves, Because The Book Puts Us Inside The Character's Skin.
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Book
Reading
Part Of It Is Living In Tennessee. I'm So Out Of The Loop. And As A Person, I'm Out Of The Loop. I'm Oblivious By Nature.
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Persons
Loops
Well, I Always Say That The Two Things I Was Most Disastrous At In My Life, Being A Teenager And Being A Wife, Were The Two Things I Really Wound Up Cashing In On When I Was Writing Fluffy Magazine Pieces.
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Writing
Two
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.
Letting Go
Gathering
Information
Carmen Prayed Hard. She Prayed While Standing Near The Priest In Hopes It Would Give Her Request Extra Credibility. What She Prayed For Was Nothing. She Prayed That God Would Look On Them And See The Beauty Of Their Existence And Leave Them Alone.
Giving
Looks
Priests
Reading Is A Private Act, Private Even From The Person Who Wrote The Book. Once The Novel Is Out There, The Author Is Beside The Point. The Reader And The Book Have Their Own Relationship Now, And Should Be Left Alone To Work Things Out For Themselves.
Book
Reading
Should
You Can't Be A Jerk In Order To Be A Good Writer.
Order
Jerk
Good Writers
One Must Not Be Shy Where Language Is Concerned.
Shy
Language
Concerned
It Turns Out That The Distance From Head To Hand, From Wafting Butterfly To Entomological Specimen, Is Achieved Through Regular Practice. What Begins As Something Like A Dream Will In Fact Stay A Dream Forever Unless You Have The Tools And The Discipline To Bring It Out.
Dream
Distance
Butterfly
I Saw That My Best Work Was My Most Personal Work, Which Is Odd, Because My Fiction Is Very Far Afield And Has Nothing To Do With My Life.
Fiction
Saws
Odd
The Idea I Pursue Is The One That Keeps Coming Back To Me. The Characters I Think About As I'm Falling Asleep At Night Or When I'm Driving To The Grocery Store Are The One's I Wind Up Writing About.
Fall
Writing
Character
There Was No Time For Kissing But She Wanted Him To Know That In The Future There Would Be. A Kiss In So Much Loneliness Was Like A Hand Pulling You Up Out Of The Water, Scooping You Up From A Place Of Drowning And Into The Reckless Abundance Of Air. A Kiss, Another Kiss.
Loneliness
Kissing
Air
I Will Go And Speak At Rotary Clubs. I Will Go And Speak At Schools. I'm So Much In The Community, But In A Way That I Love. It's Been Such A Positive Thing.
School
Community
Clubs
The Light Was Cut To Lace By The Trees That Had Grown So Thick With Leaves In The Last Few Months.
Cutting
Light
Tree
Reading Fiction Is Important. It Is A Vital Means Of Imagining A Life Other Than Our Own, Which In Turn Makes Us More Empathetic Beings. Following Complex Story Lines Stretches Our Brains Beyond The 140 Characters Of Sound-bite Thinking, And Staying Within The World Of A Novel Gives Us The Ability To Be Quiet And Alone, Two Skills That Are Disappearing Faster Than The Polar Icecaps.
Reading
Character
Mean
There Are, Of Course, People Who Didn't Create The Trouble They're In, But Lots Of Them Do.
People
Trouble
Courses
I Think People Become Consumed With Selling A Book When They Need To Be Consumed With Writing It.
Book
Writing
Thinking
People Seem Able To Love Their Dogs With An Unabashed Acceptance That They Rarely Demonstrate With Family Or Friends. The Dogs Do Not Disappointment Them, Or, If They Do, The Owners Manages To Forget About It Quickly. I Want To Learn To Love People Like This, The Way I Love My Dog, With Pride And Enthusiasm And A Complete Amnesia For Faults. In Short, To Love Others The Way My Dog Loves Me.
Dog
Disappointment
Acceptance
When I Am Emperor, I Will Abolish Private Education. Private Schools, Private College. All Of These Parents With Money And Energy And The Drive For Bake Sales And A Desire To Leave Their Vast Fortunes To Education - Everybody Would Have To Be Eating Out Of The Same Educational Pot.
Educational
School
College
When Well Told, A Story Captured The Subtle Movement Of Change. If A Novel Was A Map Of A Country, A Story Was The Bright Silver Pin That Marked The Crossroads.
Country
Stories
Movement
I Really Do Think That Our Subconscious Gets Corrupted With Fear, And Fear Is How News Media - All Media - Makes Us [watch] Long Enough To Get To The Tide Commercial. That's All It's About. Generating Fear So That We Can Buy The Proper Laundry Detergent.
Thinking
Media
Long
Why Is It That We Understand Playing The Cello Will Require Work, But We Attribute Writing To The Magic Of Inspiration?
Inspiration
Writing
Magic
This Is My Job, My Livelihood: The Health And The Well-being Of The Publishing Industry. We're All Responsible For This.
Jobs
Responsible
Well Being
You Can't Be A Good Person When You're Writing And A Bad Person To Your Husband Or A Bad Friend. You Can't Be A Jerk In Order To Be A Good Writer. You Can't Say, "i'm Too Busy Writing To Be Political." You Are One Person. You Are The Same Person In Every Aspect Of Your Life, And You Have To Be A Responsible Person In Every Aspect Of Your Life.
Husband
Writing
Political
I Know Where I'm Going. And If I Don't Know Where I'm Going, I Don't Tend To Get Anywhere.
Knows
Ifs
It Is Said The Sesta Is One Of The Only Gifts The Europeans Brought To South America, But I Imagine The Brazilians Could Have Figured Out How To Sleep In The Afternoon Without Having To Endure Centuries Of Murder And Enslavement.
Sleep
America
Afternoon
I Love Telling People What To Read. It's My Favorite Thing In The World, To Buy Books And Force Books On People, Take Bad Books Away From People, Give Them Better Books.
Book
People
Giving
Write Because You Love The Art And The Discipline, Not Because You're Looking To Sell Something.
Art
Writing
Discipline
The Swedish He Knew Was Mostly From Bergman Films. He Had Learned It As A College Student, Matching The Subtitles To The Sounds. In Swedish, He Could Only Converse On The Darkest Of Subjects.
College
Matching
Sound
People Gave Me Such A Bad Time About Wanting A Baby. I Didn't Want A Baby, And I Still Don't. I Wanted A Dog.
Dog
Baby
People
Time Has A Funny Way Of Collapsing When You Go Back To A Place You Once Loved. You Find Yourself Thinking, I Was Kissed In That Building, I Climbed Up That Tree.
Thinking
Tree
Finding Yourself
It's Always Better To Have Too Much To Read Than Not Enough.
Too Much
Enough
Thank God Roxane Coss Had Not Fallen In Love With One Of The Russians. She Doubted They Could Make It Up The Stairs Without Stopping For A Cigarette And Telling At Least One Loud Story That No One Could Understand.
Thank God
Stopping
Stories
That's Important To Me, To Recommend Books.
Book
Important
Fiction Is Always Really A Labor.
Fiction
Labor
No One Should Have To Go Back To The Place Where She Had Once Been A Girl.
Girl
Should Have
Should
If Someone Loves You For What You Can Do Then It's Flattering, But Why Do You Love Them? If Someone Loves You For Who You Are Then They Have To Know You, Which Means You Have To Know Them.
Love You
Mean
One Love
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.
Art
Voice
People
I Was Starting To Wonder If I Was Ready To Be A Writer, Not Someone Who Won Prizes, Got Published And Was Given The Time And Space To Work, But Someone Who Wrote As A Course Of Life. Maybe Writing Wouldn't Have Any Rewards. Maybe The Salvation I Would Gain Through Work Would Only Be Emotional And Intellectual. Wouldn't That Be Enough, To Be A Waitress Who Found An Hour Or Two Hidden In Every Day To Write?
Writing
Emotional
Two
Learn To Write By Writing
Writing
I Think Of Nashville As A Very Natural Place. We're Easy Going, We Are Ourselves. There Isn't A Lot Of Preening Or Trying To Impress. So It's An Easy Place To Just Be And That Is A Good State From Which To Write.
Writing
Thinking
Nashville
You Can't Say, "i'm Too Busy Writing To Be Political." You Are One Person.
Writing
Political
Busy
The Love Between Humans Is The Thing That Nails Us To The Earth.
Love Is
Nails
Earth
No One Tells The Truth To People They Don't Actually Know, And If They Do It Is A Horrible Trait. Everyone Wants Something Smaller, Something Neater Than The Truth.
Want Something
People
Telling The Truth
I Believe That, More Than Anything Else, This Grief Of Constantly Having To Face Down Our Own Inadequacies Is What Keeps People From Being Writers. Forgiveness, Therefore, Is Key. I Can't Write The Book I Want To Write, But I Can And Will Write The Book I Am Capable Of Writing. Again And Again Throughout The Course Of My Life I Will Forgive Myself.
Grief
Believe
Book
Society Was Nothing But A Long, Dull Dinner Party Conversation In Which One Was Forced To Speak To One's Partner On Both The Left And The Right.
Party
Long
Dull
We Are Taught To Be Suspicious, Especially Of Anyone Who Might Not Look Like Us Or Share Our Beliefs.
Belief
Share
The Secret Is To Keep Adding Voices, Adding Ideas, And Moving Things Around As You Put Together Your Life. If You’re Lucky, Putting Together Your Life Is A Process That Will Last Through Every Single Day You’re Alive.
Moving
Ideas
Voice
You Throw A Person In The River And Then Make A Spectacle Of Jumping In To Save Them.
Jumping
Rivers
Jumping In
Love Was Action. It Came To You. It Was Not A Choice.
Choices
Action
I Know That There Are People Out There Who Believe We Should Get Rid Of All Guns.
Believe
Gun
People
You Can't Spend Your Whole Life In Front Of A Screen.
Whole Life
Whole
Screens
We Have Different Kinds Of Intimacy With Many, Many People. I'm Disappointed By Well-written Novels That Only Deal With Two Or Three People.
Two
People
Different
Writing Is A Job, A Talent, But It's Also The Place To Go In Your Head. It Is The Imaginary Friend You Drink Your Tea With In The Afternoon.
Jobs
Writing
Tea
I Am A Totally Public Person.
Persons
Everybody Believes In Chance.
Believe
Chance
Only A Few Of Us Are Going To Be Willing To Break Our Own Hearts By Trading In The Living Beauty Of Imagination For The Stark Disappointment Of Words.
Disappointment
Writing
Heart
My Novels Are Very Much The Same, As I Think Many People's Novels Are. No Matter How Hard I Try To Do Otherwise, The Books Always Wind Up Being "a Group Of Strangers Are Thrown Together By Circumstance And Form A Society."
Book
Thinking
Trying
I Made A Startling Discovery. Time Spent Writing = Output Of Work. Amazing.
Writing
Discovery
Made
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