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Quote by Peter Orner

“I beat a story to within an inch of its life - that's when I know its done. Not before, not after.”

Quote by Peter Orner

Author

Peter Orner, born in 1968, is an American writer known for his unique narrative style and profound insights into human nature. His works cover a variety of themes, including family, love, memory, and social change. more

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“I've spent a lot of time in prisons, first doing legal work and later, teaching.”

Firsts Teaching Prison

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“One story I've been trying to write for years, and haven't been able to finish, is about a face I saw, just a glimpse of a face, in a max security prison in North Carolina. I'm still trying to understand what I saw in that guy's face.”

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“My characters tend to be people who are looking back on a life lived, their joys, their regrets.”

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“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?”

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“I agonize over things like this - the order of things, section titles, all this architectural sort of stuff. Takes me years to figure out.”

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“A collection, for me, is a book of very diverse stories that somehow speak to each other, across wide geography, across time, years, decades.”

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“If a novel or a story works, you don't stop thinking about it; it doesn't truly end.”

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“I used to be surprised and a little annoyed when characters would reappear in my mind, itching to be in another story. Now I realize it's part of the deal, that you create these people out of thin air but then, if you do it right, they actually live.”

People Ifs Mind Littles Character Stories Used Realizing Deals Air Used To Be Annoyed Thin Air Itching

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“Everybody, doesn't matter who you are, escapes time. And for me, nothing is stranger than the thought that kids are just kids. Nobody is just anything. Whether you are eight or eighty, you've got your own unique take on how weird this world is.”

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“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.”

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