“Years ago I read an interview with Paula Fox in which she said that in writing, truth is just as important as story. Reading that interview was the first time I really understood that there's no point in trying to impress people with my cleverness when I can just try to write honestly about what matters most to me.” PeopleWritingTryingYearsFirstsSaidI CanImportantMatterStoriesReadingTruth IsUnderstoodFirst TimeYears AgoHonestlyInterviewsWhat MattersImpressFoxesNo PointClevernessNo Point In Trying Author:Molly Antopol
“I knew that I was writing for an American audience and that if I sold foreign rights, they would retranslate the book to make it make sense to that language. But one thing that was really important to me was not to italicize any of the words in the languages that were in the stories, because I feel like those foreign words felt just as important and integral to the story as everything else, so I wanted it all to just exist as its own thing.” IfsFeelsWritingImportantBookStoriesWantedLanguageFeltAudienceRightsOne ThingMake Sense Author:Molly Antopol
“The Israel stories were really hard for me to write, because I think that my book is very much about politics, but it isn't political. It really was important for me to not have a political agenda at all, because I have a hard time stomaching any political fiction that feels message-y.” ThinkingFeelsWritingImportantBookHardStoriesPoliticalFictionMessagesIsraelHard TimesAgendasPolitical Agendas Author:Molly Antopol
“It was tricky [to write about Israelis], because everyone has an opinion about the Arab - Israeli conflict, and when I first started writing these stories, I was working for an Arab - Israeli human rights group. It was during the Second Intifada. It was this totally violent and intense time, and I think there's a part of me where I don't know how to write about that situation without getting my politics out of my messages, and that's something that was important for me not to do in this book.” ThinkingKnowsWritingFirstsHumansImportantBookStoriesSituationOpinionKnow HowRightsGroupsConflictMessagesHuman RightsViolentIntenseIsraeliTrickyArab Israeli Conflict Author:Molly Antopol
“People are going to bash you. You get rejected. It's hard. I don't really feel like that's my place as the teacher. I think the most important thing is to figure out what they're trying to do and turn them onto writers who are doing similar stuff. I think that's something I can do more than anything else: get them to be big readers.” PeopleThinkingTryingImportantTeacherRejectedBash Author:Molly Antopol
“It is more important to just be as honest as I can about my characters than to write some really great sentence.” WritingImportantCharacterHonestReally Great Author:Molly Antopol
