Quotessence
Home / Authors / Tod Goldberg
Tod Goldberg

Tod Goldberg Quotes

Author

Filter quotes by topic

AllIfsPeopleThinkingWritingBookTeachingWantedWorldYearsCasesCreativeCreative WritingFictionIdeasLongMurderNovelPersonsProgramStudents

Famous Tod Goldberg Quotes

“I'm really fascinated by how the mob ethos permeates places like Las Vegas and Chicago. I have the book set in Las Vegas and Chicago for pretty specific reasons, some of which are that in both cases the mob history has become a tourist attraction - I'm actually doing a book signing in Las Vegas at The Mob Museum, which I am positively giddy about! - and I find that especially unusual. If you don't call these people "the Mafia" they're just a band of psychopaths killing people for profoundly dumb reasons.”

PeopleIfsBookReasonCasesBandKillingAttractionDumbMuseumsChicagoUnusualFascinatedPositivelyMafiaVegasLas VegasTouristsSigningPsychopathEthosGiddy
Author:Tod Goldberg
Create image

“The rise of the anti-hero can be traced to a litany of social reasons. Post World War I, for instance, saw the blooming of some pretty dark stuff - I'm thinking of Dashiell Hammett's Red Harvest, for instance, when "The Continental Op" shows up in Poisonville to clean up the town...and proceeds to kill something like thirty people.”

PeopleThinkingWorldWarReasonShowsSocialStuffDarkSawsHeroRedTownsCleanInstancePostsWar Of The WorldsThirtyWorld War IHarvestBloomingContinentalAnti Hero
Author:Tod Goldberg
Create image

“I think my philosophy has evolved over the years. I started teaching almost 15 years ago and I've learned that how one student learns is obviously much different than how another student learns and so I've had to figure out how to get through to people honestly without hurting their feelings - which is no easy task just in the scope of being a human being, much less in the classroom, but which is something that is more important to me now than it was when I was 30 - and to show them a path to improving.”

PeopleThinkingYearsHumansImportantDifferentPhilosophyShowsFeelingsEasyHurtHuman BeingsPathTeachingFiguresStudentsYears AgoTasksHonestlyI've LearnedClassroomImprovingScopeEasy Tasks
Author:Tod Goldberg
Create image

“My god, people are selling their work and people are reading it! The horror! That MFA programs have to advertise that they'll let you write YA or fantasy or what-have-you is just absurd, but we do, because the presumption is that they're closed to that sort of thing. You're offering an MFA in creative writing? Teach people how to write well, worry about that part, let the writers come up with the stories.”

PeopleWritingWellsStoriesReadingTeachWorryFantasyCreativeHorrorProgramCome UpAbsurdSellingOfferingCreative WritingPresumption
Author:Tod Goldberg
Create image

“I read an interview with Daniel Woodrell once where he said something like, basically, if people had said what they said to him in a bar instead of workshop, he would have punched them...and I finally understood that when in a class with my wife. Every time someone said something about her work, I wanted to climb across the table and stab them in the neck with my pen. And these were people I liked and respected.”

PeopleIfsSaidWantedClassWifeUnderstoodTablesMy WifeBarsInterviewsNecksClimbsPensThey SaidWorkshops
Author:Tod Goldberg
Create image