Quotessence
Home / Authors / Alison McGhee
Alison McGhee

Alison McGhee Quotes

Author

Filter quotes by topic

AllKateThinkingWritingTogetherTwoBookFallGivingHurtLittles

Famous Alison McGhee Quotes

“I like to read books one after another. Immerse myself in a book, and then immerse myself in the next book, and just keep going until there aren't any more books left to swim in. That's why I hate when authors die. I cannot stand it. There will be no more books forthcoming from that person. Their future books died with them. In the past I have found a series of books and loved it so much that all I wanted to do was read and read and read those books for the rest of my life. Then I would find out that the author was dead. Had in fact been dead for many a year. This has happened to me several times.”

ReadingBooksAuthorsDead Authors
Author:Alison McGhee
Create image

“What is the matter with these people, these people who won't stop fighting, won't stop hurting each other long enough to see that a body is a thing of beauty, is a miracle of rivers and oceans and islands and continents contained within itself? That the brain is divided into two hemispheres, each symmetrical, each perfect, each with its own system of waterways. These people of war should be shown an x-ray of an intraparenchymal hemorrhage, of a hemorrhage in an eighteen-year-old girl's brain, a girl named Ivy. Take a look at that, people of war. See, you should not hurt each other, and this is why. Without you ever even trying, this is what can happen to your body, your beautiful body, and your brain, your beautiful symmetrical brain, and your heart, and your soul.”

BodyHurtStopWaterwaysPeople Of War
Book:All Rivers Flow to the Sea
Create image

“We'd decided to write a book about two friends. I gave her some coffee and then we sat there not knowing what to do. How do you start writing a book together? So Kate [DiCamillo] got up after about 10 minutes into this endeavor, and said, 'Well, that was fun,' and started to head out the door. I said, 'Wait, wait, wait, no no no,' because I'm a bit more patient.”

WritingWellsSaidTwoBookTogetherFunBitsWaitingKnowingDoorsMinutesDecidedPatientCoffeeSatEndeavorNot KnowingWriting A BookKateTwo FriendsKnowing What To Do
Author:Alison McGhee
Create image

“So we [with Kate DiCamillo] decided to give the friends an object and see what they did with it. The object was a sock and it went from there. Once we got going, once we got on a roll, it became very easy to work together and to figure out how to do it. We would meet for two-hour segments, usually from 10-12, two or three times a week. We met all one summer, and I think into the fall.”

ThinkingGivingTwoTogetherFallThreeEasyHoursWeekFiguresObjectsMetsSummerDecidedWorking TogetherThree TimesSockKate
Author:Alison McGhee
Create image

“So we [with Kate DiCamillo] would act them out, we would toss ideas back and forth, we would laugh, we would argue. Sometimes it went really well, sometimes it was such a pain in the ass. Our other rule was that we wouldn't work on it at all when we weren't in the other's presence. It was really hard not to do that. We'd start going on email back and forth, 'What do you think about this, what do you think about that?' But, no, no, no, it had to be live. So we forced ourselves not to look at it except during those two-hour stretches when we were actually with each other.”

ThinkingWellsLooksTwoIdeasSometimesHardPainHoursLaughingArguingAssEmailBack And ForthKateToss
Author:Alison McGhee
Create image

“The world should have stopped, but it didn't. The world kept on going. How can the world just keep on going? An earthquake in India kills a thousand people, and the world keeps on going. A famine in China kills a million people, and the world keeps on going. The twin towers of the World Trade Center buckle and fall, and the world, the world keeps on going.”

PeopleWorldShouldFallMillionsThousandShould HaveIndiaTradeChinaTwinsTowersEarthquakesFamineWorld TradeWorld Trade CenterBucklesTwin Towers
Book:All Rivers Flow to the Sea
Create image