Jennifer Egan Quotes & Sayings (Page 4)

“If you don't have people that the reader cares about and stories that are gripping, you've got nothing.”

“One area I have a huge amount of trouble in is writing about myself. I get a heavy, almost depressed feeling.”

“I am at my worst trying to write about things that overlap with my life.”

“I don't really know where my ideas come from. I start with a time and a place. That's what I need to get started, and an intellectual question.”

“I think the one thing that's changed over time is that I've come to realise, as a fiction writer, the fact that I don't think it will work out, doesn't mean that it actually won't.”

“Because you can't write habitually and well all the time, you have to be willing to write badly. That's how you get the regularity that enables you to be present for the good stuff.”

“I had this idea that I could hire myself out as a person to go on archeological digs and dig, without any training! I actually wrote to a number of archeology departments and offered up my services.”

“I hope to keep writing journalism as long as I write fiction; it's afforded me such amazing adventures and opportunities. It does take a lot of time, so it's hard to do both at once, but I try to do a big journalism piece every couple of years, and I'll hopefully continue with that.”

“I was a stepchild in two different families. The hardest thing about being a stepchild is you know that in some way everything would be easier if you didn't exist.”

“I was on a very bumpy plane ride, an overnight flight. I was so miserable, and I pulled out 'David Copperfield,' and I forgot how scared and tired I was, and I thought, 'This is what reading should be.' I'm utterly transported out of my current situation.”