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Ellen Gilchrist

Ellen Gilchrist Biography

Novelist

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“I have been moving around all my life. Going to different schools, living in different houses, shedding old roles, assuming new ones. This way of life is as natural to me as staying in one place is for other people. I do variations on the theme. I return to places where I used to be. I find my old personas. I try them on. If they still fit, I wear them out to a party or a show. If they begin to restrict my movements, I take them off. I am a human being, capable of mimicking anything I see or remember or can imagine.”

PeopleIfsWayTryingHumansHas BeensStillsDifferentShowsSchoolRememberMovingLife IsUsedHouseNaturalHuman BeingsPartyRolesImagineMovementIdentityReturnFitCapableAssumingUsed To BeThemeStayingVariationPersonaMimicking
Book:Falling Through Space
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“One thing I know is that it is a bad idea to marry someone who had bad parents. If they hated their mother, if they were hated by their mother or father, your marriage will pay for it in ways both obvious and subtle. When the chips are down, when someone is sick or loses their job or gets scared, the old patterns will kick in and he will treat you the way he treated his mother or the way she treated him.”

IfsKnowsWayIdeasJobsMotherFatherParentLosesPayOne ThingTreatsSickPatternsScaredObviousTreatedHatedKicksSubtleChipsBad IdeasBad Parent
Author:Ellen Gilchrist
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“The first thing a writer has to do is find another source of income. Then, after you have begged, borrowed, stolen or saved up the money to give you time to write and you spend all of it staying alive while you write, and you write your heart out, after all that, maybe no one will publish it, and if they publish it, maybe no one will read it. That is the hard truth, that is what it means to be a writer.”

IfsGivingWritingFirstsHeartMeanHardAliveSourceSavedIncomeStayingStolenPublishBorrowedStaying AliveHard Truths
Book:Falling Through Space
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“We cannot get from anyone else the things we need to fill the endless terrible need, not to be dissolved, not to sink back into sand, heat, broom, air, thinnest air. And so we revolve around each other and our dreams collide. Look out the window in any weather. We are part of all that glamour, drama, change, and should not be ashamed.”

NeedsShouldLooksDreamAirTerribleDramaWindowEndlessWeatherHeatAshamedSandOur DreamsGlamourCollideBrooms
Author:Ellen Gilchrist
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“I haven't written poetry in a long time but I read it and I miss it. It is so hard to write. So hard to finish, so hard to find the exact word to make it shine. In honor of my youth I will write a poem to finish this essay. It is spring in the Ozark Mountains. The yellow flowers are blooming and the birds wake me at dawn and last night five planets lined up by the moon in the western sky. If that doesn't inspire me to poetry what will?”

IfsWritingLongHardLastsNightFiveWrittenSkyMissingHavensYouthInspirePlanetsFlowerHonorMoonMountainLong TimeSpringBirdShiningWesternDawnYellowEssaysLast NightBloomingOzarksYellow FlowerWestern Sky
Author:Ellen Gilchrist
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