Tobias Wolff Quotes & Sayings (Page 2)

“Anybody can be very destructive in that position without at all meaning to be, and I know that I have been inadvertently destructive in the past for certain people on certain occasions.”

“Because the more you write the more you're aware of the weight of your tradition and the difficulties of the form and the more you have already done that you do not want to do again.”

“But a lot of writers - and I'm one of them - do tend to feel dissatisfied. It makes you a little hard to live with, but it's a goad and does keep you alert and restless.”

“It's probably why I'm a short story writer. I tend to remember things in the past in narrative form, in story form, and I grew up around people who told stories all the time.”

“Perhaps that is why the novel flourished in England. You had these communities that would stay put and people would see one another all the time and cause one another to change and have the opportunity to observe the changes over time.”

“Because I don't have to be careful of people's feelings when I teach literature, and I do when I'm teaching writing.”

“There's a joy in writing short stories, a wonderful sense of reward when you pull certain things off.”

“Work for most people is really very social, and the actual thinking is often done in community.”

“Like so many writers I started writing stories because I didn't have much time for anything else.”

“One of the last courses I taught was on the Russian short story, which I love.”