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Famous Alice Mattison Quotes

“For some people, it's very easy to be spontaneous and they can pour out the most wonderful stuff. But it's really hard to exert control over it, to think, 'Well, this could be different. This could go in the opposite order, there could be more here and less there.' For other people, it's much easier to have rules and a methodology, but much harder to let loose and allow their feelings to come pouring out on the page. They're more shy or they're just more distant from their emotions. I think everybody starts with one or the other.”

PeopleThinkingWellsDifferentHardFeelingsOrderEasyStuffEmotionWonderfulEasierPagesOppositesHarderShyOver ItSpontaneousPouringMethodologyBe Spontaneous
Author:Alice Mattison
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“I remember I had had one woman who had three or four kids, and some of them were having problems. I said, 'Maybe you could go write somewhere else, away from your house.' And sure enough, all kinds of wonderful stuff emerged. She was keeping too much charge of herself because she couldn't stop being a mother when she was in the house. You have to find your own way of letting loose, if you're one of those people.”

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Author:Alice Mattison
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“Every once in a while someone says, 'You can't really learn anything, if you're really a writer then you wouldn't need to do it.' But I think what people need is the sense of not being alone. They go to MFA programs to be part of a community of people who care, and then you start caring about your friend who is trying to edit a magazine and your other friend who is stuck in the middle of her poem. There you have all kinds of things to worry about besides your own success.”

PeopleIfsThinkingNeedsTryingKindCareCommunityWorryMiddleProgramCaringStuckAll KindsMagazinesWho CaresEditsStuck In The Middle
Author:Alice Mattison
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