“When I was writing my first novel, I smoked cigarettes. And when I think about what it was like to smoke, I remember exactly the feeling of sitting in front of my big old computer in that little room where I wrote my first novel.” ThinkingWritingFirstsLittlesFeelingsBigsRememberRoomsNovelFrontsComputerSittingSmokeCigarette Author:Dani Shapiro
“I remember getting my first cell phone in New York, getting into a taxi and thinking "This is the end of solitude in the back of a taxi." What used to happen in the back of a taxi? You looked out the window. My brain has become less able to spend lengths of time without shifting, and I worry about that.” ThinkingFirstsEndsHappensAbleRememberUsedBrainWorryNew YorkSolitudeWindowPhonesCellsLengthShiftingCell PhoneTaxi Author:Dani Shapiro
“Our minds simply don't function in some sort of narrative chronology. I think that one of the great gifts of writing fiction is being able to think about that.” ThinkingWritingMindAbleFictionFunctionNarrativeWriting FictionGreat GiftsChronology Author:Dani Shapiro
“I think so much about how we read, about the nature of solitude, and of community, is changing in ways that none of us yet understand.” ThinkingWayCommunitySolitude Author:Dani Shapiro
“I think there's something about a writer's disposition, that is, even if unaware, always slightly in a witness state.” IfsThinkingStatesWitnessDisposition Author:Dani Shapiro
“It's not gender-specific, but I do think it's women who tend to start having that sort of little whispering voice of "I want more here" and "I want more for my family."” ThinkingWantLittlesVoiceMy FamilyGenderWhispering Author:Dani Shapiro
“If you are a writer or any kind of artist, if you change something as fundamental as where you live - the way you live - then I think you change the very instrument that is trying to make the art” IfsThinkingWayTryingKindArtArtistFundamentalsInstrumentsWhere You Live Author:Dani Shapiro
“It is in the thousands of days of trying, failing, sitting, thinking, resisting, dreaming, raveling, unraveling that we are at our most engaged, alert, and alive.” ThinkingTryingDreamAliveFailingSittingEngagedResistingUnraveling Book:Still Writing: The Perils and Pleasures of a Creative Life Source: Still Writing: The Perils and Pleasures of a Creative Life
“Devotion, as it relates to the title of my memoir, means fidelity - as in fidelity to a person or a practice. I think it's certainly possible to feel devotion without having faith, at least in the religious sense of the word.” ThinkingFeelsMeanPersonsReligiousPracticeDevotionMemoirRelateTitlesHave FaithFidelity Author:Dani Shapiro
