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Jeanette Winterson

Jeanette Winterson Quotes

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Famous Jeanette Winterson Quotes

“The Anglo-American tradition is much more linear than the European tradition. If you think about writers like Borges, Calvino, Perec or Marquez, they're not bound in the same sort of way. They don't come out of the classic 19th-century novel, which is where all the problems start. 19th-century novels are fabulous and we should all read them, but we shouldn't write them.”

IfsThinkingWayShouldWritingProblemNovelCenturyTraditionBoundsClassicFabulous19th CenturyLinearBorgesAmerican TraditionMarquez
Author:Jeanette Winterson
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“At bed-time I went into my room and put out the light. I didn't get undressed. I lay on my bed and looked out of the window at the stars. I read in a book that the stars can take you anywhere. I've never wanted to be an astronaut because of the helmets. If I were up there on the moon, or by the Milky Way, I'd want to feel the stars round my head. I'd want them in my hair the way they are in paintings of the gods. I'd want my whole body to feel the space, the empty space and points of light. That's how dancers must feel, dancers and acrobats, just for a second, that freedom.”

IfsWayWantFeelsBookWholeBodyLightWantedStarsSpaceRoomsPaintingHairBedMoonWindowEmptyLaysRoundsDancerAstronautHelmetEmpty SpaceMilky WayPoints Of LightBed Time
Author:Jeanette Winterson
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“Great control and great discipline are necessary when you reach your own editing stage of the book, but in the early stages you have to be prepared to let anything happen and to get it wrong or go off track. The development of a character is not smooth or simple - it is as tricky as meeting someone new whom you would like to know better.”

KnowsBookCharacterHappensSimpleStageDevelopmentDisciplineMeetingsPreparedTrackThings HappenSmoothEditingBe PreparedTrickyMeeting Someone
Author:Jeanette Winterson
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“I learned capacity for self-reflection very early, finding it through interior monologues that books are so good at and that visual media is so bad at because it's so boring - nothing's happening. In a book, you can be inside the narrator's head for 50 pages, and nothing needs to happen. Then you learn to be inside your own head without something needing to happen. It's a very good antidote to a crazy, restless, "what's next?" culture - that you can just be in your own head and nothing is happening except that this is a rich place. I love that.”

NeedsBookSelfHappensCultureNextRichCrazyMediaFindingsPagesHappeningsReflectionCapacityVery GoodBoringVisualsInteriorsRestlessAntidoteSelf ReflectionMonologuesNarratorsSo Boring
Author:Jeanette Winterson
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