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David Bezmozgis

David Bezmozgis Books

Writer

David Bezmozgis is a Canadian-American writer born on June 2, 1973, in Toronto. The son of Latvian Jewish refugees, his literary work often explores the immigrant experience, family dynamics, and issues of identity among Jewish diaspora communities. His debut short story collection "Natasha" (2001) received critical acclaim and established him as a significant voice in contemporary literature. He has published several acclaimed works including the novel "The Free World" (2011) and "Victoria" (2019).

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Related Quotes

“When you write a book, you want to have fidelity to the character. Characters and their emotions guide the structure of the novel. The author is aware that there's a certain amount of information she/he has to provide in order to satisfy the reader, knowing that she/he has set something up that must be paid off, but this payment must be made while maintaining fidelity to the characters.”

Want Writing Made Book Character Certain Order Emotion Novel Knowing Information Reader Amount Paid Structure Guides Maintaining Payment Fidelity Paid Off

Author:David Bezmozgis

“I think every book is a reaction to everything you're written before, and most immediately to the book you wrote just before.”

Thinking Book Written Reactions

Author:David Bezmozgis

“Writing a novel, in an unplanned and unpredictable way, makes you engaged; it takes you into yourself, and it becomes something between you and the character for a moment, and then you move back into the structure of the book. I love those moments, because they are completely unbidden.”

Way Writing Book Moments Character Moving Novel Structure Engaged Unpredictable

Author:David Bezmozgis

“Maybe the most provocative thing one can do - and I'm not the first one to do it - is to ask the moral and philosophical question: why are some people better than others? Why are some people more moral than others?”

People Firsts Asks Can Do Moral Philosophical Provocative Philosophical Questions

Author:David Bezmozgis

“People everywhere feel differently at different times of their lives.”

People Feels Different Different Times

Author:David Bezmozgis

“When writing dialogue, I hear it in both Russian and English, and try to find a language that combines the two.”

Writing Trying Two Language Dialogue Writing Dialogue

Author:David Bezmozgis

“Language is a personality as well. People are different when they speak different languages.”

People Wells Different Speak Language Personality Different Languages

Author:David Bezmozgis

“I believe I'm very conscious of exactly what I'm doing. I'm auditioning lines of dialogue, and I'm interrogating whether the lines would translate from Russian into English the right way. The English that results can perhaps seem somewhat more formal than colloquial, but not so formal as to feel academic.”

Way Feels Believe Seems I Believe Lines Results Conscious Dialogue Academic Translate Formal Right Way

Author:David Bezmozgis

“It's not for the writer to say whether the thing is successful or not.”

Author:David Bezmozgis

“I think ex-Soviet or Russian-Jewish women are tougher and that comes through. And if they are more pragmatic than the men, it's because they are obliged to be. They have all the female responsibilities and all the male responsibilities.”

Ifs Thinking Men Responsibility He Man Female Males Soviet Exes Obliged Pragmatic

Author:David Bezmozgis

“In my experience of women, women have a greater capacity. Maybe women, even very pragmatic ones, are less guarded about showing emotions.”

Emotion Greater Capacity Men Women Pragmatic Guarded

Author:David Bezmozgis

“I think there are differences between men and women. There is more of a softness to women than there is to men, especially when it comes to those more intimate emotions: feeling love, feeling familial connections.”

Thinking Men Feelings Differences Emotion Men And Women Connections Intimate Softness Differences Between Man And Woman Love Feeling Emotions Feelings

Author:David Bezmozgis

“I think even with women who come across with a tough exterior, the interior is the same. I think you'll find this with women around the word: some women, because of their circumstances, are forced to be tougher, forced to cultivate tougher exteriors.”

Thinking Circumstances Tough Interiors Exterior

Author:David Bezmozgis

“When you write a book, you want to have fidelity to the character. Characters and their emotions guide the structure of the novel.”

Want Writing Book Character Emotion Novel Structure Guides Fidelity

Author:David Bezmozgis

“If the fidelity [ in a book] isn't maintained, the reader will think your structure is extraneous, or superficial, or that you're trying to curry favor, or live up to the expectations of some sort of genre or structure.”

Ifs Thinking Trying Book Reader Expectations Structure Favors Genre Superficial Fidelity Curry

Author:David Bezmozgis

“I spent seven years writing The Free World. There are a lot of things I accomplished there that I'm very proud of, but I didn't want to spend another seven years writing a book like that.”

World Want Writing Years Book Proud Seven Accomplished Seven Years Writing A Book Free World

Author:David Bezmozgis

“Some is, I think, the personal in any act of writing. You find yourself caught up: you start a sentence, and it becomes revelatory, not just of the character, but of you as well.”

Thinking Writing Wells Character Caught Sentences Finding Yourself Caught Up

Author:David Bezmozgis

“There are different types of readers. People draw lines at which three things intersect: the character, the author, and the reader.”

People Different Character Three Lines Type Reader Draws Three Things

Author:David Bezmozgis

“Here I am: a Russian-speaking Jew living in Canada, and you, an Indian ex-patriot living in San Francisco. All of a sudden we commune in this moment about a much older Russian political dissident.That's the human part of being human: feeling those moments.”

Humans Moments Feelings Political Jew Indian Canada Patriot Being Human Exes San Francisco Here I Am Communes Dissidents

Author:David Bezmozgis

“We all have some ideological quotient in ourselves. And I think it does guide who we are.”

Thinking Doe Guides Who We Are Ideological

Author:David Bezmozgis

“I think having an uncompromising ideology eventually forces you out of the norm.”

Thinking Force Ideology Norm Uncompromising

Author:David Bezmozgis

“Most people will reach a point where, whatever their ideology, they will relent, or conform, and that keeps them kind of in the general mass of people. And for those who find that they can't, all of sudden they leave the general mass, they find that they become exceptions, and exceptional, and often this makes them public.”

People Kind Mass Ideology Exception Conform Exceptional

Author:David Bezmozgis

“Why are some people highly principled and willing to do anything for their principles, while most of us are not? And I am willing to not only ask, but also answer the question.”

People Asks Answers Principles Willing Principled

Author:David Bezmozgis

“We are taught that we can be better than we are. But is there a limit to how good we can be?”

Author:David Bezmozgis

“There are books where you can really see the moral question, which I think we answer every day for ourselves, in every interaction we have with people, to a lesser or greater degree.”

People Thinking Book Answers Moral Greater Degrees Interaction

Author:David Bezmozgis

“There are books like Darkness at Noon, which from the prose standpoint I don't think is a perfect book. It has flaws. But for its time, it was very politically courageous.”

Thinking Book Perfect Darkness Prose Courageous Flaws Standpoint Noon Darkness At Noon

Author:David Bezmozgis

“Incident at Vichy, one of my favorite Arthur Miller plays, is a play in which you look at all of the different perspectives of this moral question. And it isn't so easy to decide which position is correct.”

Looks Different Play Easy Moral Position Perspective My Favorite Incidents Arthur Different Perspective

Author:David Bezmozgis

“Nothing is easy in writing. I don't think for anyone. But dialogue is probably what comes most naturally to me.”

Thinking Writing Easy Dialogue Nothing Is Easy

Author:David Bezmozgis

“Amity Gaige has written a flawless book. It does not contain a single false note. Playful and inventive, SCHRODER movingly depicts the ways we confound our own hearts--how even with the best intentions, we fail to love those closest to us as well as we wish we could. Eric Schroder should take his place among the most charismatic and memorable characters in contemporary fiction, and Amity Gaige her place among the most talented and impressive writers working today.”

About the Author

Born: June 2, 1973
Known for: Writer
Quotes: 29

Related Topics

Thinking Book People Writing Character Different Emotion Structure Dialogue Fidelity

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People Ifs Thinking Knows Men World Way Want Love Life Inspirational Needs Giving Feels Should Writing Trying Years Mind Firsts

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