Home / Authors / Karen Thompson Walker

Karen Thompson Walker

Karen Thompson Walker Quotes

Author

Karen Thompson Walker is an American author known for her unique science fiction novels. Her works often explore profound themes of human existence, such as time, memory, and identity. Although her exact birth and death dates are unknown, she has achieved significant accomplishments in her writing career.

Filter quotes by topic

All Writing Stories Kind Sentences Way Editors Fiction Reader Thinking Years

Famous Karen Thompson Walker Quotes

“I fell in love with Virginia Woolf in college. I especially admire how well she writes about daily life, how she captures so much meaning and consequence in the smallest details of a day.”

Writing Wells College Consequence Details Admire Daily Life Capture Smallest Virginia Woolf

Author:Karen Thompson Walker

“I left my job in the fall, and now I can set my life up around writing instead of squeezing writing into my day; it's amazing to have that time, and I feel very lucky.”

Feels Writing I Can Jobs Fall Left Lucky Squeezing

Author:Karen Thompson Walker

“I like to edit my sentences as I write them. I rearrange a sentence many times before moving on to the next one. For me, that editing process feels like a form of play, like a puzzle that needs solving, and it's one of the most satisfying parts of writing.”

Needs Feels Writing Play Moving Form Next Process Sentences Satisfying Editing Puzzles Edits The Next One One For Me

Author:Karen Thompson Walker

“I love conventional apocalypse movies. In movies, I like to be with the President, or the scientist trying to solve the problem, but that's not the kind of fiction that I like to read.”

Trying Kind Problem President Fiction Scientist Solve Conventional Apocalypse

Author:Karen Thompson Walker

“I tend to mostly take the day off from working on Sundays, but I do spend some time reading. Mostly what I'm picking up is what's in stores. I really do love to read fiction from the last year or two.”

Years Two Lasts Reading Fiction Stores Sunday Last Year Days Off Love To Read

Author:Karen Thompson Walker

“I wake up fairly early every day, by 8, for sure. Sunday is a lighter writing day than the weekdays, but I still wake up and write for about an hour, beginning right around 8. I definitely have coffee first, and then I start writing. I do think it's kind of hard to get the right level of concentration without coffee.”

Thinking Writing Firsts Kind Stills Hard Hours Levels Wake Up Coffee Concentration Sunday Lighters Weekdays

Author:Karen Thompson Walker

“I was a book editor for nine years. I'm familiar with the opposite experience, bracing myself for the likelihood that no one would want to publish my book.”

Want Years Book Opposites Nine Familiar Editors Publish Nine Years Likelihood

Author:Karen Thompson Walker

“Shortly after the 2004 Indonesian earthquake, I read that the earthquake had affected the rotation of the earth, shortening the length of our 24-hour day. Even though the change was extremely slight - only a few microseconds - I found the idea incredibly haunting.”

Ideas Earth Found Hours Length Affected Haunting Earthquakes Rotation

Author:Karen Thompson Walker

“Sometimes I think I might not have written 'The Age of Miracles' if I hadn't grown up in California, if I hadn't been exposed to its very particular blend of beauty and disaster, of danger and denial.”

Ifs Thinking Sometimes Might Age Written Danger Particular Miracle Disaster Denial California Exposed

Author:Karen Thompson Walker

“It requires a certain kind of bravery, I suppose, to choose the status quo. There's a certain boldness to inaction.”

Kind Certain Bravery Status Quo Boldness Inaction

Book:The Age of Miracles: A Novel

Source: The Age of Miracles: A Novel

“We were a different kind of Christian, the quiet, reasonable kind, a breed embarrassed by the mention of miracles.”

Kind Different Christian Quiet Miracle Reasonable Different Kinds Embarrassed

Book:The Age of Miracles

Source: The Age of Miracles

“With a little persuasion, any familiar thing can turn abnormal in the mind. Here's a thought experiment. Consider this brutal bit of magic. A human grows a second human in a space inside her belly; she grows a second heart and a second brain, second eyes and second limbs, a complete set of second body parts as if for use as spares, and then, after almost a year, she expels that second screaming being out of her belly and into the world, alive. Bizarre, isn't it?”

Source: The Age of Miracles: A Novel

“An editor is like a professional reader, and as I became a better reader, I also became a better writer.”

Author:Karen Thompson Walker

“It's really hard to get a book published, even a good book, but the better the book is the better chance it has of eventually catching someone's attention.”

Book Hard Chance Attention Good Book Catching

Author:Karen Thompson Walker

“I really believe that fiction functions best when stories are allowed to develop in an organic way, so I didn't set out to deliver a specific message.”

Way Believe Stories Fiction Messages Function

Author:Karen Thompson Walker

“My goal was just to tell the unlikely story in a way that would feel as convincing as possible.”

Way Feels Stories Goal Unlikely Convincing

Author:Karen Thompson Walker

“To be a good editor or a good writer, I think you really need to be a great reader first.”

Thinking Needs Firsts Reader Editors Good Writers

Author:Karen Thompson Walker

“Working as an editor was like being a professional reader, and the better I became at reading the better I became at writing.”

Writing Reading Reader Editors

Author:Karen Thompson Walker

“My sentences got sharper and my stories more efficient, and I gradually learned to imagine the reader more clearly and to empathize with that imagined reader, which is a crucial part of learning to tell stories.”

Stories Imagine Reader Sentences Crucial Efficient

Author:Karen Thompson Walker

“I just hope that readers and publishers continue to appreciate good writing and good storytelling in all their various forms. And I hope that people continue to read books, even though we have so many other options for entertainment.”

People Writing Book Form Reader Appreciate Various Entertainment Storytelling Publishers Good Writing Good Storytelling

Author:Karen Thompson Walker

“Nothing has happened to me out of the closet that was anywhere near as dangerous as being closeted.”

Happened Dangerous Closets

Author:Karen Thompson Walker

About the Author

Known for: Author
Quotes: 71

Related Topics

Writing Stories Kind Sentences Way Editors Fiction Reader Thinking Years

Popular Topics

People Ifs Thinking Knows Men World Way Want Love Life Inspirational Needs Giving Feels Should Writing Trying Years Mind Firsts

Books & Sources

The Age of MiraclesRelated source material

The DreamersRelated source material

The Age of Miracles: A NovelRelated source material

Similar Authors

George SaundersBrowse related quotes
William ZinsserBrowse related quotes
Paul AusterBrowse related quotes
Eudora WeltyBrowse related quotes
Lynne TillmanBrowse related quotes
Flannery O'ConnorBrowse related quotes
Theodora GossBrowse related quotes
Isabel AllendeBrowse related quotes
Joyce Carol OatesBrowse related quotes
Stephen KingBrowse related quotes