“Sometimes indirect style and varying chronology is great, but quite often I've seen it be just something that gets in the way. It turns out when I talk to the writer that she or he, and more often it's a woman, that she's worried.” WaySometimesTurnsStyleWorriedIndirectChronology Author:Alice Mattison
“Even murderers, I suppose, experience the loss of car keys the way the rest of us do. I mean, how can they not? Once you make this person scramble around the house looking for her car keys and finally find them, get in the car, and run into traffic, we can identify with her enough that when she stops the car and pulls the gun out of her purse and heads in to kill somebody, we'll be with her as much as is possible.” WayMeanPersonsEnoughRunningHouseLossCarKeysGunTrafficMurdererPursesCar Keys Author:Alice Mattison
“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.” PeopleIfsWayWritingKindSaidEnoughProblemKidsRememberMotherThreeHouseStuffToo MuchFourWonderfulAll KindsSomewhere ElseOne WomanBeing A Mother Author:Alice Mattison
“There is a lot of censorship about writing that's exerted from all directions, from families or governments and society, even the fear of being offensive in some way.” WayWritingGovernmentCensorshipOffensiveGovernment And Society Author:Alice Mattison
“This is true in other fields, too, that a legal aid lawyer gets a whole lot less money than a Hollywood lawyer who handles the estates of celebrities. Maybe the legal aid lawyer is doing something better, though, and maybe they're happier. It's not a completely unheard of idea, but I do think we have to remind ourselves at times to look for satisfaction in other ways.” ThinkingWayLooksIdeasWholeFieldsHollywoodSatisfactionAidsLawyerHandleEstatesSomething BetterUnheard Author:Alice Mattison
“There are so many different ways, most of them helpful and legal, to get yourself into a state of mind where writing is possible. It's going to be different for each person.” WayWritingMindPersonsDifferentStatesDifferent WaysHelpfulState Of Mind Author:Alice Mattison