“I'll find something in what I read that snags my imagination in emotional terms; it resonates with me for reasons more complicated than just that it seems like it would make a good story.” ReasonStoriesSeemsTermImaginationEmotionalComplicatedMy ImaginationGood Story Author:Jim Shepard
“Does research get in the way of the story? It certainly can. Anything can, given that as writers we're all geniuses at procrastination. But mostly research teaches me about the world. Which often shows me the way, in terms of the story.” WorldWayDoeStoriesShowsGivenTermTeachGeniusResearchProcrastinationShow Me Author:Jim Shepard
“I do find stories - or literary fiction - an apt form for analyzing the world. And especially for trying to imagine the other. An agenda, again, that seems more important now than ever.” WorldTryingImportantStoriesSeemsFormFictionImagineAgendasAnalyzing Author:Jim Shepard
“I don't beat at the details, but I do always keep in mind that anything that isn't A) moving the story forward or B) enlarging my understanding of the central characters has to be sacrificed. I have huge folders of details - research - with a story like Netherlands. Only a very small part of it gets used. The old iceberg analogy again.” MindCharacterStoriesMovingUsedUnderstandingHugeBeatsResearchDetailsAnalogiesSmall PartsIcebergNetherlandsFolders Author:Jim Shepard
“The protagonist of Fourteen Stories, None of Them Are Yours doesn’t make it easy for us, channeling as he does Barry Hannah and Denis Johnson by way of Rick Bass and Dennis Hopper, and self-presenting as yet another damaged romantic who thinks it’s always time to play the cowboy, skating in and out of sense. He can’t see right, and he’s haunted by nearly everything. He’s trying to open up or shut himself down or at least get a hold of himself. He’s trying to make do with what he’s done, while he reminds us that we’re all, one way or another, in that position.” ThinkingWayTryingDoeSelfDonePlayStoriesEasyPositionOne WayCowboyJohnsonBassPresentingSkatingFourteenChannelingProtagonists Author:Jim Shepard
