“I think most Hollywood meetings are silly and I truly despise pitching. It's insane to expect someone to come in and tell you the story before they've written it, and buying an idea from someone who can explain it rather than write it is like choosing a mechanic based on his ability to draw a picture of your car's problem.” ThinkingWritingIdeasStoriesProblemAbilityWrittenCarDrawsHollywoodMeetingsSillyInsaneBuyingDespiseMechanicPitching Author:Jess Walter
“I think suspense should be like any other color on a writers palette. I suppose Im in the minority but I think its crazy for literary fiction to divorce itself from stories that are suspenseful, and assign anything with cops or spies or criminals to some genre ghetto.” ThinkingShouldStoriesFictionCrazyColorDivorceCriminalsSuspenseGenreMinoritiesCopSpyGhettoPalette Author:Jess Walter
“The first fiction I ever wrote was short stories. I was writing short stories in my late teens and early twenties, and I think it's how you teach yourself to write.” ThinkingWritingFirstsStoriesFictionTeachLateTwentiesShort StoryTeensWriting ShortWriting Short Stories Author:Jess Walter
“I think the path to becoming a writer has become more through the novel. It's easier to get a novel published than a book of stories, obviously, especially through big publishers.” ThinkingBookStoriesBigsNovelPathBecomingEasierPublishers Author:Jess Walter
“The stories tend to be what I work on when I'm stuck. Something will just pop into my head and I'll think that's more of a story.” ThinkingStoriesPopsStuck Author:Jess Walter
“Because I'm a novelist, I think in terms of structure. The way I keep going is through structure. It's what inspires me and pushes me through.” ThinkingWayTermInspireStructureNovelistsKeep Going Author:Jess Walter
“I've been a dad since I was nineteen, so I think a lot about fatherhood and the power of that sacrifice in your life.” ThinkingSacrificeDadFatherhoodNineteen Author:Jess Walter
“For many people it's Facebook, or sports on TV, whatever it is. I have my own demons that I battle. But whatever they are, you wish you could not do them. For most of us it's "I cannot get off Facebook." But imagine that your demon has you living on the street. I don't think those compulsions and obsessions are that different.” PeopleThinkingDifferentWishSportsMy OwnImagineStreetsTvsBattleObsessionDemonImagine ThatCompulsionWish YouLiving On Author:Jess Walter
“The neighborhoods I grew up in were poor and full of drug users. I don't think you have to look that hard to find those kinds of lives. But I also don't think you have to have experienced it really close to be able to empathize.” ThinkingLooksKindHardAblePoorGrewDrugGrew UpNeighborhoodUsers Author:Jess Walter
“It's once I discover the people inside that the story really gets going, and then the formal invention becomes less important. It's just the way in; it's the door; and then what's behind it is always some kind of people, which I think probably makes me more in the tradition of realistic fiction because that's usually what I'm interested in, the people.” PeopleThinkingWayKindImportantStoriesBehindsFictionDoorsTraditionInventionRealisticFormalRealistic Fiction Author:Jess Walter
“I love humor in writing, so I've written to the thing that's funny, there's the joke, but then I just kept going. I started thinking about all the bikes I've had stolen, and that got me thinking about crime, and that got me thinking about the city I'm in.” ThinkingWritingCitiesWrittenCrimeJokesBikeStolenHumor Love Author:Jess Walter
“I think so, too. I know I felt that way. For years. It was as if I was a character in a movie and the real action was about to start at any minute. But I think some people wait forever, and only at the end of their lives do they realize that their life has happened while they were waiting for it to start.” PeopleIfsThinkingKnowsWayLifeYearsRealEndsCharacterActionFeltWaitingRealizingForeverHappenedMinutes Book:Beautiful Ruins Source: Beautiful Ruins
“And because he felt like he might burst open and because he lacked the dexterity in English to say all that he was thinking--how in his estimation, the more you lived the more regret and longing you suffered, that life was a glorious catastrophe--Pasquale Tursi said, only, "Yes.” ThinkingSaidMightFeltRegretLongingGloriousCatastropheEstimationDexterity Author:Jess Walter
“At peace? Who but the insane would ever be at peace? What person who has enjoyed life could possibly think one is enough? Who could live even a day and not feel the sweet ache of regret?” ThinkingFeelsPersonsEnoughSweetRegretInsaneEnjoyedAche Author:Jess Walter
