“The feeling of being an outsider, and the identity theme, are hardwired into me. If there's anything really autobiographical in my fiction, it's that feeling. I always feel that way.” IfsWayFeelsFeelingsFictionIdentityThemeOutsiders Author:Dan Chaon
“Identity issues are hardwired into the way I think about character - it's almost as if I can't get away from them even if I want to.” IfsThinkingWayWantI CanCharacterIssuesIdentityGet Away Author:Dan Chaon
“I was worried that, as a college teacher, if I wrote too much about intergenerational sex my students would be creeped out.” IfsWould BeSexToo MuchTeacherStudentsCollegeWorried Author:Dan Chaon
“What if you believed that everything in life was like a prize? What if you thought of the world as a big random drawing, and you were always winning things, the world offering them up with a big grin, like an emcee's: Here you go, Hollis. Here is a motorcycle. Here is a little boy who loves you. Here is a weird experience, here is something bad that you should mull over because it will make you a better person. What if you could think that life was this free vacation you'd won, and you won just because you happened to be alive?” IfsThinkingWorldShouldLittlesPersonsBigsWinningBoysAliveHappenedLove YouDrawingPrizeWhat IfVacationOfferingBetter PersonLittle BoysMotorcycleEmcee Book:Among the Missing Source: Among the Missing
“Sometimes he thinks that if he could only trace the path of his life carefully enough, everything would become clear. The ways that he screwed up would make sense. He closes his eyes tightly. His life wasn't always a mistake, he thinks, and he breathes uncertainly for awhile, trying to find a pathway into unconsciousness, into sleep.” IfsThinkingWayTryingSometimesEnoughEyeSleepMistakePathClearBreatheMake SenseHis EyesPathwaysScrewed UpUnconsciousness Author:Dan Chaon
“It had occurred to him that if the undead don't realize that they are dead, he might easily be one of them himself.” IfsMightRealizingUndead Author:Dan Chaon
“It is not like a premonition of death. It is as if she died a long time ago, and she just now remembered it.” IfsLongLong TimeDiedRememberedLong Time AgoPremonition Author:Dan Chaon
