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Lauren Groff Quotes

Novelist

Lauren Groff is a renowned American novelist born on July 23, 1978. Her works are known for their unique narrative style and profound character development, winning her a dedicated following.

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Famous Lauren Groff Quotes

“A lot of my work comes from a place of despair or fear. I often write in order to gain some sort of control over aspects of my life or the world that seem too dark to look at directly.”

World Writing Looks Seems Order Dark Despair Gains Aspect

Author:Lauren Groff

“Writing is the lonely sport of sad sacks.”

Writing Sports Lonely

Author:Lauren Groff

“When I write new worlds, I work in layers, building and throwing out, and building anew.”

World Writing Building Throwing New World Layers

Author:Lauren Groff

“I love writing from enclosed spaces: you really learn about your characters when they have tight walls to push against.”

Writing Character Space Wall

Author:Lauren Groff

“In terms of writing, I think what most fiction writers treasure more than anything is the feeling that they're living for the length of a book inside another person.”

Thinking Writing Persons Book Feelings Term Fiction Treasure Length Fiction Writers

Author:Lauren Groff

“While writing, writers are living inside a character or characters, and when the book ekes into the world, writers are living inside the reader. That's more than connecting.”

World Writing Book Character Reader Connecting

Author:Lauren Groff

“The triumph of writing fiction is that by doing so, writers can build a more ideal world in themselves.”

World Writing Fiction Ideals Triumph Writing Fiction Ideal World

Author:Lauren Groff

“Fiction is always a utopian task, in that there's an ideal you hold in your head as you write which inevitably fails in the moment of creation, in the insufficiency of words to convey meaning, or in the way the work is completed in the reader's head.”

Way Writing Moments Fiction Failing Creation Reader Ideals Tasks Utopian Insufficiency

Author:Lauren Groff

“It's wonderful that nothing you write is ever going to be as beautiful as what's in your head, because that gap is where the art can enter and begin to stretch its limbs.”

Writing Art Beautiful Wonderful Gaps Limbs

Author:Lauren Groff

“Even the presence of my kids cannot, during those writing hours, disturb me. Unless there's a bone sticking out of their arm, I'm not interested.”

Writing Kids Hours Bones Not Interested

Author:Lauren Groff

“I feel lucky. I do love it, mostly. At college I had it in my heart that I wanted to be a writer but I didn't want to tell anyone about it. Then I graduated and became a bartender in Philadelphia, writing during the day. I was the worst bartender in the world.”

World Writing Heart Worst College My Heart Lucky Bartender

Author:Lauren Groff

“I had a series of terrible jobs, whatever would allow me to write for four hours during the day. During that time I wrote three novels - all of which were extraordinarily poor. I decided after that to go and get my MFA.”

Writing Hours Poor Novel Terrible

Author:Lauren Groff

“It's more like I write multiple first drafts, handwritten. So with my first novel, I wrote whole drafts from different points of view. There are different versions of that novel in a drawer on loose-leaf sheets. I won't even look at the first draft while I'm writing the second, and I won't look at the second before writing the third.”

Writing Different Novel Point Of View Multiple

Author:Lauren Groff

“I'm a physical learner. I learn from writing drafts, not reading them.”

Writing Reading

Author:Lauren Groff

“When I write a new draft, I don't like to feel I'm tied to any previous version. That's why I don't use a computer to write. The text looks, on the screen, too much like a book. It's not a book - it's a bad first draft of something that could one day be a book.”

Writing Book One Day Computer

Author:Lauren Groff

“Writing by hand is a way of letting mystery into my writing. But I'm constantly trying to figure out how to do this job. It's a work in progress.”

Writing Trying Progress Mystery Work In Progress

Author:Lauren Groff

“I feel like in American fiction we're moving out of a period of intense irony, and I'm very glad about that. I feel like irony is fine for its own sake but shouldn't be the sole reason to write a book. It has been an ironic world view: that's the best way I can describe it. I'm a fan of earnestness. I feel like there's a new wave of earnestness and I'd be happy if I'm some small part of that.”

World Writing Book Reason Moving Wave Glad Intense Irony Ironic World View Earnestness Moving Out

Author:Lauren Groff

“I don't believe that fiction is dead. I know there are some people who believe that it's an outdated art form, and that to express truth today you need to work in different forms, to write books where it's perhaps not clear what's fiction and what's memoir. I have nothing against those books and love many of them very much. But we have enough space for everyone, traditional realists and hybrid writers, and experimental writers all.”

People Writing Believe Art Book Different Enough Today Memoir Realist Hybrid

Author:Lauren Groff

“A female writer does definitely get more attention if she writes about male characters. It's true. It's considered somehow more literary, in the same way that it's more literary to write about supposedly male subjects, such as war. You're considered more seriously by the literary establishment.”

Writing War Character Attention Female

Author:Lauren Groff

“I'm a writer, not an actor. I want to write rather than perform. I'm looking forward to disappearing for a while.”

Writing Disappear Looking Forward

Author:Lauren Groff

“I do like Twitter. Writing is a solitary pursuit, and it can get lonely. I like to go into Twitter for a short period of time, communicate with clever friends, and then switch it off. That's perfect for me.”

Writing Perfect Lonely Communicate Clever Solitary

Author:Lauren Groff

“In the end, fiction is the craft of telling truth through lies.”

Writing Ends Lying Fiction Crafts Telling The Truth

Book:The Monsters of Templeton

Source: The Monsters of Templeton

“At least in my case, a very simple, regular, happy life makes for better writing.”

Writing Simple Cases Happy Life

Author:Lauren Groff

About the Author

Born: July 23, 1978
Known for: Novelist
Quotes: 154

Books & Sources

Fates and FuriesRelated source material

ArcadiaRelated source material

The Monsters of TempletonRelated source material

Delicate Edible Birds and Other StoriesRelated source material

FloridaRelated source material

The Vaster WildsRelated source material

Delicate Edible Birds: And Other StoriesRelated source material

MatrixRelated source material

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