“I have long admired Caroline Leavitt's probing insight into people, her wit and compassion, her ability to find humor in dark situations, and conversely, her tenderness towards characters.” PeopleLongCharacterDarkAbilityCompassionSituationInsightWitTendernessProbing Author:Dan Chaon
“You can't count on notoriety lasting very long, and there's no way to predict whether anyone will care about your books or you in three years, let alone ten or twenty.” WayYearsLongBookCareThreeTenTwentiesLastingThree YearsNotoriety Author:Dan Chaon
“I'd read an enormous amount but had spent so much time in my own head that I didn't have extensive social skills. Suddenly I was in this world where I was surrounded by these incredibly polished and wealthy kids who had gone to prep schools, and I felt daunted by them. I don't think people were aware of how full of anxiety I was... For a long time I felt like I was living in a place where I shouldn't have been.” PeopleThinkingWorldLongHas BeensKidsSchoolSocialFeltMy OwnGoneThis WorldAmountSkillsAnxietyLong TimeEnormousWealthyPolishedPrepsSocial Skills Author:Dan Chaon
“I think at a certain point the book develops a certain weight, or pressure. You've been pushing the rock up the hill for a long time and then it starts to roll and things do start to come together in the last two thirds.” ThinkingLongBookTogetherHills Author:Dan Chaon
“You can go on like this for a very long time, and no one will notice. You keep thinking you're going to hit some sort of bottom, but I'm here to tell you: There is no bottom.” ThinkingLongGoes OnLong TimeBottom Book:Among the Missing Source: Among the Missing
“I can't understand how people can settle for having just one life. I remember we were in English class and we were talking about that poem by - that one guy. David Frost. 'Two roads diverged in a yellow wood-' You know this poem, right? 'Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, and sorry I could not travel both and be one traveler, long I stood and looked down one as far as I could, to where it bent in the undergrowth-" "I loved that poem. But I remember thinking to myself: Why? How come you can't travel both? That seemed really unfair to me.” PeopleThinkingKnowsLongI CanTwoRememberGuyTalkingClassSorryWoodsSettlingJust OneYellowUnfairTravelerBentFrostTwo RoadsEnglish Class Book:Await Your Reply: A Novel Source: Await Your Reply: A Novel
“How can you come to understand your life when even the beginning is so complicated: a single cell imprinted with the color of your eyes and the shape of your face the pattern on your palm and the moods that will shadow you through your life. How can you be alive when every choice you make breaks the world into a thousand filaments each careless step branching into long tributaries of alternate lives shuddering outward and outward like sheet lightning.” WorldLongEyeFacesChoicesStepsBreakAliveColorThousandShapesShadowPatternsComplicatedMoodCellsYour FaceLightningSheetsPalmsCarelessChoices You MakeShuddering 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
“I guess I'm curious about how people process grief and how they process loss. And I'm also interested in the ways in which an event can have long-reaching consequences and a life over the course of years.” PeopleWayYearsLongCoursesProcessLossGriefEventsConsequenceCuriousReaching Author:Dan Chaon
