“I have never been able to understand the complaint that a story is "depressing" because of its subject matter. What depresses me are stories that don't seem to know these things go on, or hide them in resolute chipperness; "witty stories," in which every problem is the occasion for a joke; "upbeat" stories that flog you with transcendence. Please. We're grown ups now.” KnowsMatterStoriesProblemSeemsAbleSubjectsGoes OnPleaseJokesWittyOccasionsDepressingComplaintsTranscendenceSubject MatterResoluteUpbeat Author:Tobias Wolff
“The very act of writing assumes, to begin with, that someone cares to hear what you have to say. It assumes that people share, that people can be reached, that people can be touched and even in some cases changed. So many of the things in our world lead us to despair. It seems to me that the final symptom of despair is silence, and that storytelling is one of the sustaining arts; it’s one of the affirming arts. A writer may have a certain pessimism in his outlook, but the very act of being a writer seems to me to be an optimistic act.” PeopleWorldWritingMayArtSeemsCareCertainSilenceCasesShareChangedDespairAssumingFinalsStorytellingOptimisticTouchedOur WorldPessimismSymptomsOutlookSustainingAffirming Author:Tobias Wolff
“I believe that the short story is as different a form from the novel as poetry is, and the best stories seem to me to be perhaps closer in spirit to poetry than to novels.” WritingBelieveDifferentStoriesSeemsFormSpiritI BelieveNovelPoetry IsShort Story Author:Tobias Wolff
