Jonathan Dee Quotes & Sayings

“Those who know New York City primarily through tourism or mass culture may think of us natives as possessing certain shared characteristics, not all of them flattering. But the true, volatile charisma of New York lies in how balkanised it is.”

“I seem to have a talent for writing endings that seem just right to me but that frustrate other people.”

“I think that good storytelling of any kind does promote a humility in that it encourages you to see the world the way that other people see it.”

“I have no desire to write historical anything or futuristic anything - I want to find a way to get at the essence of what it's like to be alive now. The reason why great novels from centuries ago are still great is because that's what they were doing; it's like a message from another culture.”

“In order to describe a particular subculture, you might want to portray people who are typical or representative of that subculture; but to dramatize it, to make it an interesting setting for a story, you want to bring someone anomalous into that setting, to see how she conforms to it, and it to her.”

“There's no path to being a writer that's applicable to everyone. Some young writers have the fortitude to work in a vacuum. For me, it was important to have some sense that my failures weren't unique.”

“I personally feel I still have so much to learn as a writer; each novel is better than the one before, just because I'm getting better at it.”

“Kenneth Branagh. There was a time in my life when people would tell me constantly that I look like him. I could do a lot worse than that.”

“More than periods where I don't write anything, I have periods where I just write junk and I know I'm writing junk but I can't stop.”

“New York is ultimately not the synthesis but merely the sum of its unfathomable subjectivities, its personal histories, its uncategorisable figures.”