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Kate Christensen Books

Novelist

Kate Christensen is an American novelist known for her distinctive narrative style and profound portrayal of Southern American culture. Her works often explore themes of family, love, identity, and class, and are highly appreciated by readers.

The Astral

A source page for quotes linked to Kate Christensen.

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Trouble

A source page for quotes linked to Kate Christensen.

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Trouble: A Novel

A source page for quotes linked to Kate Christensen.

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Related Quotes

“Let nothing human be foreign to me”

Courage Acceptance Embracing Life

Book:Trouble

Source: Trouble

“It happened every single day in Brooklyn: awaken to fresh glory, fall asleep to blight and ruin.”

City Brooklyn Kate Christensen The Astral

Book:The Astral

Source: The Astral

“I scrambled to pack my things, glad I owned so little.”

Kate Christensen The Astral

Book:The Astral

Source: The Astral

“Writing blog posts is totally freeing in a whole new way for me. I'm not writing it for any editor, and I'm not being paid, so I can say whatever I want. I don't have to justify the cost of a book to readers; they get it for free, so expectations are naturally low. (And no one-star reviews!)”

Way Want Writing I Can Book Whole Stars Reader Cost Lows Expectations Paid Posts Justify Editors Reviews New Ways Blogs

Author:Kate Christensen

“Starting the blog was a way for me to generate this nonfiction first-person voice naturally, gradually, without feeling performance anxiety. It felt a bit like keeping journals when I was younger, but connecting to an instant readership without having to wait for publication made it also immediately satisfying.”

“Blogging is different from both journal-writing and writing for print. It's more fun than either of those. The freedom to write whatever I want and the unmediated connection with readers are the payoff.”

Want Writing Different Fun Reader Connections Print Journal Blogging Payoff Journal Writing

Author:Kate Christensen

“Turning the blog into a book was extremely difficult, a tremendous amount of sustained, hard work. Blogging is easy; writing a book is difficult.”

Writing Book Hard Easy Difficult Hard Work Amount Blogs Writing A Book Blogging

Author:Kate Christensen

“Although the point of blogging is that it doesn't pay, I often steal from my blog for paid publication. I've based several magazine essays on blog posts, as well as an entire book.”

Wells Book Pay Paid Stealing Magazines Posts Essays Blogs Publication Blogging

Author:Kate Christensen

“Another benefit is that the more I blog, the more I maintain and develop a first-person voice, which translates into a much greater ease with writing personal essays.”

Writing Firsts Persons Voice Greater Benefits Ease Translate Essays Blogs First Person Personal Essays

Author:Kate Christensen

“Sometimes I think of blogging as finger exercises for a violinist; sometimes I think of it as mulching a garden. It is incredibly useful and helpful to my "real" writing.”

Thinking Writing Real Sometimes Exercise Garden Fingers Helpful Blogging Violinist

Author:Kate Christensen

“I've always subscribed to the notion that a writer always has something else to say, and the more you write, the more you have to write about, because the act of writing is self-generating.”

Writing Self Notion

Author:Kate Christensen

“Now that I no longer feel lonely, and now that my own past feels resolved in a whole new and very deep way, I am excited to write about the real world, to stay in it. Fiction is an escape, a parallel life, and it was a powerful source of comfort for me when my own life was raw and uncomfortable. I don't feel the burning need to disappear into a fictional character these days.”

“So many of my memories are generated by and organized around food: what I ate, what people cooked, what I cooked, what I ordered in a restaurant. My mental palate is also inextricably intertwined with the verbal part of my brain. Food, words, memories all twist together, so it was the obvious way to structure my life. Each memory of food opened up an entire scene for me, it was the key that unlocked everything.”

People Way Together Memories Brain Keys Scene Structure Obvious Organized Restaurants Twists Palate Intertwined

Author:Kate Christensen

“I was also writing in a tradition and trying to do something different with it, something that hadn't necessarily been done before, which was a risk, but it made it interesting. My relationship with food has been complicated and rocky and not always wonderful, and it's a lens through which my entire life and identity are refracted.”

Writing Trying Has Beens Made Different Done Interesting Wonderful Risk Identity Tradition Complicated Made It Lenses

Author:Kate Christensen

“I wanted to capture time through how food and I were getting along at any given moment. That necessitated writing some dark stuff, some sad stuff, and a lot of painful memories, because my life has often been dark, sad, and painful. I didn't want to sugarcoat anything.”

Want Writing Moments Wanted Given Stuff Memories Dark Painful Capture Painful Memories Getting Along

Author:Kate Christensen

“The pressure to be thin, which causes guilt and obsessiveness around food, is terrible and starts so early. For me, it started at sixteen when I left home and gained weight for the first time and was told by a slightly older boy, out of the blue, that I was "too plump." The shock of that lasted a good long time.”

Firsts Long Home Left Causes Boys Terrible Long Time First Time Weight Pressure Blue Guilt Shock Sixteen Good Long

Author:Kate Christensen

“When you're sixteen and struggling to forge an identity out of a morass of hormones and daydreams, remarks like that cut a deep groove in the brain. I trace the ongoing, victorious-feeling semi-starvation of my twenties directly back to adolescence - as a way of showing those assholes that I could control my appetites... Which is so sad, in retrospect, because of course no one cared.”

Way Feelings Courses Brain Struggle Cutting Identity Twenties Appetite Adolescence Ongoing Remarks Starvation Daydreaming Sixteen Hormones Retrospect Groove So Sad No One Cares

Author:Kate Christensen

“As an adult I generally feel this pressure to be thin, not from men, but from other women. As a silent or not-so-silent competition, a constant monitoring of who's thinner, comments about it - either compliments or veiled insults doesn't matter - it always drives me nuts.”

Men Feels Matter Adults Pressure Constant Competition Silent Insult Compliment Comment Nuts Monitoring

Author:Kate Christensen

“I had to detach myself from myself, if that makes any sense, to conjure an authentic first-person voice. In that sense, it was similar to writing a first-person novel. But I was writing about real people, not fictional ones - myself, my family, my friends and boyfriends and ex-husband, and that was extremely tricky.”

People Ifs Writing Firsts Persons Real Voice Novel Husband My Friends My Family Exes Tricky First Person Ex Husband

Author:Kate Christensen

“Friendship is a strange animal. It only thrives in voluntary enjoyment of each other's company, in the pleasure of nonobligatory connection. I repeat: You owe me nothing.”

Pleasure Animal Company Strange Connections Enjoyment Repeats Thrive

Author:Kate Christensen

“Thank God for my hobgoblin, small-minded consistency.”

Thank God Consistency

Book:Trouble: A Novel

Source: Trouble: A Novel

“To taste fully is to live fully. And to live fully is to be awake and responsive to complexities and truths - good and terrible, overwhelming and miniscule. To eat passionately is to allow the world in; there can be no hiding or sublimation when you're chewing a mouthful of food so good it makes you swoon.”

World Terrible Taste Awake Complexity Hiding Overwhelming Chewing

Author:Kate Christensen

“My sudden, unforeseen capitulation had knocked me backward, and I had nothing to hold on to. My internal weather was eerily calm, as if in a tornado's aftermath, birdsong, sunshine, supersaturated colors, wreckage all around, and myself, dazed and limping.”

Ifs Color Bird Calm Weather Internals Sunshine Aftermath Tornadoes Unforeseen Wreckage Birdsong Dazed Limping Capitulation

Author:Kate Christensen

About the Author

Born: August 22, 1962
Known for: Novelist
Quotes: 23

Books & Sources

The AstralRelated source material

TroubleRelated source material

Trouble: A NovelRelated source material

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