The more accurately one can illuminate a particular human experience, the better the work of art. — Claire Messud Copy Share Image
“When, as a woman, you make yourself the work of art, and when you are then what everyone looks at, then whatever… — Claire Messud Copy Share Image
Maybe that, really, is as good a definition as any of an artist in the world: a ruthless person. — Claire Messud Copy Share Image
“I was aware of doing only a so-so job on the grown-up career front, but I didn't really care, because there were… — Claire Messud Copy Share Image
I think there's no question that there's a reason why small children make great art and why slightly bigger children don't. And… — Claire Messud Copy Share Image
“It was supposed to say “Great Artist” on my tombstone, but if I died right now it would say “such a good… — Claire Messud Copy Share Image
The effort to create a work of art that is true and potentially lasting, that is the very best work of art… — Claire Messud Copy Share Image
“It was supposed to say “Great Artist” on my tombstone, but if I died right now it would say “such a good… — Claire Messud Copy Share Image
Popular success is a wonderful gift if it happens, but like money, it's not the motivation. The effort to create a work… — Claire Messud Copy Share Image
There questions of wanting to be an artist, and what does that mean, what makes you an artist? Are you an artist… — Claire Messud Copy Share Image
There's a reason why trainspotters are not girls, there's a reason why there's the myth of the slightly autistic male genius, there's… — Claire Messud Copy Share Image
“How angry am I? You don't want to know. Nobody wants to know about that. I'm a good girl, I'm a nice… — Claire Messud Copy Share Image
“I'm a good girl. I'm a nice girl. I'm a straight-A, strait-laced, good daughter, good career girl, and I never stole anybody's… — Claire Messud Copy Share Image
I have said it somewhere - our literary lived lives are as important as our literally lived lives. — Claire Messud Copy Share
“Life is about deciding what matters. It’s about the fantasy that determines the reality. Have you ever asked yourself whether you’d rather fly or… — Claire Messud Copy Share
Life's funny. You have to find a way to keep going, to keep laughing, even after you realize that none of your dreams will… — Claire Messud Copy Share
It's the strangest thing about being human: to know so much, to communicate so much, and yet always to fall so drastically short of… — Claire Messud Copy Share
The fictional narratives that television, film, and the news provide for girls and young women are appalling. — Claire Messud Copy Share
“I don't want to sleep,' my mother said. 'I want -- for God's sake, I want to wake up.” — Claire Messud Copy Share
“It was supposed to say “Great Artist” on my tombstone, but if I died right now it would say “such a good teacher/daughter/friend” instead;… — Claire Messud Copy Share
“Live, my dear Nora. Satisfy your hunger. There's food all around you, you know.' 'What kind of food, I'd like to know?' 'Ah'-he smiled-… — Claire Messud Copy Share
I digress a lot - it's how I experience the world. I would like to write in a way that will convey that to… — Claire Messud Copy Share
We think that - as kids, you know - that kids make up stories and live in a sort of fictional place, but that,… — Claire Messud Copy Share
“It makes sense that if you stand almost daily in the middle of a perfect crescent of shore, with a vista open to eternity,… — Claire Messud Copy Share
“Once aware of my isolation, I was afraid not of it but of its interruption.” — Claire Messud Copy Share
“who I am in my head, very few people really get to see that. Almost none. It’s the most precious gift I can give,… — Claire Messud Copy Share
“My everyday Appleton life, my phones calls to my father, my occasional beers with friends, my Saturday-morning jobs around the reservoir - what was… — Claire Messud Copy Share
