“I think what I'm after, a lot of the time, is just honesty. What accounts for the fact that the stories we tell ourselves - the story we carry around and think of most often - are the dark ones? Maybe we have to wander around in the darkness to understand it?” ThinkingFactsStoriesDarkDarknessHonestyAccountsWander Author:Peter Orner
“If a novel or a story works, you don't stop thinking about it; it doesn't truly end.” IfsThinkingEndsStoriesNovel Author:Peter Orner
“Lot of stories in deceit, how characters deceive other people, but most of all, I think, how they deceive themselves. We're not as tricky as we think we are.” PeopleThinkingCharacterStoriesDeceitDeceivingTricky Author:Peter Orner
“I think anything we do - eating, walking down the street, online shopping - gives you another perspective on writing stories.” ThinkingGivingWritingStoriesStreetsPerspectiveWalkingEatingOnlineShoppingWriting StoriesOnline Shopping Author:Peter Orner
“I sometimes wonder if our memories are a myth. We think we remember, but we are remembering the story and not the actual event?” ThinkingSometimesRememberMemoriesWonderMythOur Memories Author:Peter Orner
“I think that maybe happy families don't need stories the way unhappy families need stories. Maybe they're too busy living that they don't actually step back and talk about life like the Anton Chekhov quote. I prefer Anton Chekhov to Lev Tolstoy, and the reason is because of what he leaves out. Sometimes I think Tolstoy had a theory that he was proving and he proved it. Chekhov is more ambiguous.” ThinkingSometimesReasonProveBusyUnhappyToo BusyAmbiguousHappy FamilyUnhappy Family Author:Peter Orner
“I usually have a location and then I put the character there. I love place names. I think I'm tricking myself by being so specific - it suddenly becomes real to me. Just because I say it's Chicago, Illinois doesn't mean it's true, but place names sort of make me grounded and then I can put some people there.” PeopleThinkingMeanRealCharacter Author:Peter Orner
“To me, and I'm sure for other writers, too, characters come back and they relive again, but what about those characters who only live for a page or two? Or for five pages or 10 pages. I like to think they're still out there - still living - but for me they kind of die, too. It's kind of sad. I don't think about them anymore unless I give them life again.” ThinkingGivingKindCharacter Author:Peter Orner
“My first book came out again - the re-issue from 2001. I was rereading it to make sure that I didn't miss any mistakes, and I didn't know who had written some of these stories. I really didn't. I am a different person now. It's weird. I think if stories are good, they have to have a life of their own that's independent of the writer. I like to think of my characters out there in other peoples' heads. That's a nice thing to think about.” ThinkingBookDifferentCharacterMistakeNiceMissingIndependent Author:Peter Orner
“A novel is like a long relationship and a short story is a brief one that lingers - it lingers powerfully and maybe more powerfully. I think that's true in a lot of cases, most long-term relationships compared to some of the briefer ones - the intensity of those brief ones that end, I think a short story is kind of like that. There's a certain level of intensity that I think is different.” ThinkingKindLongDifferentNovelShort Story Author:Peter Orner
“I feel like there are too many words in the world, and I think silence is so much more powerful than the glut of words.” ThinkingWorldPowerfulSilenceSilence Is Author:Peter Orner
“I write by hand in my notebooks and number the drafts, so I know how crazy I can get with this. Some writers, like my teacher Marilynne Robinson, she only writes one draft. I've thought about this a lot; I think it's because she writes it 80 times in her head before it comes out.” ThinkingWritingTeacherCrazyNotebook Author:Peter Orner
