“Don't be pretentious is my first advice to young writers. This is the big problem - just because you're getting an MFA doesn't mean you have to write for the Academy. Be true to your personality. Don't temper your personality down with words. Don't build defensive fortresses around yourself with words - words are your friends.” WritingFirstsMeanProblemBigsYoungAdvicePersonalityBeing TrueTemperAcademyPretentiousBig ProblemsFortressesYoung Writers Author:Gary Shteyngart
“I reveled in the smallness, the coziness of an upstairs bedroom in a traditional American Cape Cod house the half-floor that forces you to duck, to feel small and naive again, ready for anything, dying for love, your body a chimney filled with odd, black smoke. These square, squat, awkward rooms are like a fifty-square-foot paean to teenage-hood, to ripeness, to the first and last taste of youth.” FeelsFirstsBodyLastsHouseForceBlackRoomsHalfFeetDyingLove YouYouthReadyTasteFilledYour BodyTraditionalSmokeOddFiftySquaresDucksAwkwardBedroomTeenageNaiveHoodUpstairsCapesChimneysSmallnessSquatFirsts And LastsCape CodRipeness Author:Gary Shteyngart
“Before my first novel, I was dating a woman who later went to prison for bashing a guy with a hammer.” FirstsGuyNovelDatingPrisonHammers Author:Gary Shteyngart
“My first book really did change my life. It allowed me to fully express myself. There was a sense that I was worth something as an artist.” FirstsBookArtistChanging My Life Author:Gary Shteyngart
“She was clothed entirely in two large swatches of leather, the leather fake and shiny in a self-mocking way, absolutely correct for 1993, the first year when mocking the mainstream had become the mainstream.” WayYearsFirstsTwoSelfFakeMainstreamLeather Book:Russian Debutante's Handbook Source: Russian Debutante's Handbook
“In the first few pages, Kundera discusses several abstract historical figures: Robespierre, Nietzsche, Hitler. For Eunice's sake, I wanted him to get to the plot, to introduce actual "living" characters - I recalled this was a love story - and to leave the world of ideas behind. Here we were, two people lying in bed, Eunice's worried head propped on my collarbone, and I wanted us to feel something in common. I wanted this complex language, this surge of intellect, to be processed into love. Isn't that how they used to do it a century ago, people reading poetry to one another?” PeopleWorldLoveFeelsFirstsTwoIdeasCharacterStoriesAgeWantedUsedLyingReadingLanguageLove IsCommonBehindsCenturyFiguresBedPagesHistoricalComplexesSakeIntellectLove StoryWorriedAbstractPlotIntroducingPeople LieReading PoetryHistorical Figure Book:Super Sad True Love Story: A Novel Source: Super Sad True Love Story: A Novel
