As writers we must, from our very opening sentence, speak with authority to our readers. — Michael Cunningham Copy Share Image
She could have had a life as potent and dangerous as literature itself. — Michael Cunningham Copy Share Image
You want to give him the book of his own life, the book that will locate him, parent him, arm him for… — Michael Cunningham Copy Share Image
I suspect any serious reader has a first great book, just the way anybody has a first kiss. — Michael Cunningham Copy Share Image
The lives great artists live and the books they write are two very different things. — Michael Cunningham Copy Share Image
One always has a better book in one's mind than one can manage to get onto paper. — Michael Cunningham Copy Share Image
I seem to produce a novel approximately once every three years. — Michael Cunningham Copy Share Image
Here's a secret. Many novelists, if they are pressed and if they are being honest, will admit that the finished book is… — Michael Cunningham Copy Share Image
I know, speaking for myself, no matter what I'm able to do, no matter what book comes out and ends up on… — Michael Cunningham Copy Share Image
As any student of literature knows, the books that last are often not the books that are most popular when they are… — Michael Cunningham Copy Share Image
The only difference was one of them was trying to make a perfect cake and one of them was trying to write… — Michael Cunningham Copy Share Image
“...Clarissa is still sometimes shocked, more than thirty years later to realize that it was happiness; that the entire experience lay in… — Michael Cunningham Copy Share Image
“She could, she thinks, have entered a different life. She could have had a life as potent and dangerous as literature itself.” — Michael Cunningham Copy Share Image
“She lays the book face down on her chest. Already her bedroom (no, their bedroom) feels more densely inhabited, more actual, because… — Michael Cunningham Copy Share Image
If you've really loved a book, or a movie for that matter, really loved it, what you want is that same book… — Michael Cunningham Copy Share Image
“She knew she was going to have trouble believing in herself, in the room of her house, and when she glanced over… — Michael Cunningham Copy Share Image
Jenny Offill's Dept. of Speculation resembles no book I've read before. If I tell you that it's funny, and moving, and true;… — Michael Cunningham Copy Share Image
Like my hero Virginia Woolf, I do lack confidence. I always find that the novel I'm finishing, even if it's turned out… — Michael Cunningham Copy Share Image
“Men may congratulate themselves for writing truly and passionately about the movements of nations; they may consider war and the search for… — Michael Cunningham Copy Share Image
“Right now she is reading Virginia Woolf, all of Virginia Woolf, book by book-She is fascinated by the idea of a woman… — Michael Cunningham Copy Share Image
You have started the book with this bubble over your head that contains a cathedral full of fire - that contains a… — Michael Cunningham Copy Share Image
We throw our parties; we abandon our families to live alone in Canada; we struggle to write books that do not change… — Michael Cunningham Copy Share Image
“However multilingual we may be as readers, we find ourselves faced with a fundamental, inescapable responsibility. We must understand that any book… — Michael Cunningham Copy Share Image
“Susan was a tough-minded romantic. She wanted to fall in love with a book. She always had reasons for her devotions, as… — Michael Cunningham Copy Share Image
“We throw our parties; we abandon our families to live alone in Canada; we struggle to write books that do not change… — Michael Cunningham Copy Share Image
“Utter objectivity...is not only impossible when judging literature, it’s not exactly desirable. Fiction involves trace elements of magic; it works for reasons… — Michael Cunningham Copy Share Image
“I’ve learned, from working with translators over the years, that the original novel is, in a way, a translation itself. It is… — Michael Cunningham Copy Share Image
She is, above all else, tired; she wants more than anything to return to her bed and her book. The world, this… — Michael Cunningham Copy Share Image
“The book worm, the foreign-looking one with the dark, close set eyes an the Roman nose, who had never been sought after… — Michael Cunningham Copy Share Image
“But then again, in addition to paper and cardboard...a little illuminated box, that contains thousands and thousands of stories? People aren’t fascinated… — Michael Cunningham Copy Share Image
“He is still, at times, astonished by her. She may be the most intelligent woman in England, he thinks. Her books may… — Michael Cunningham Copy Share Image
Virginia Woolf came along in the early part of the century and essentially said through her writing, yes, big books can be… — Michael Cunningham Copy Share Image
Virginia Woolf's great novel, 'Mrs. Dalloway,' is the first great book I ever read. I read it almost by accident when I… — Michael Cunningham Copy Share Image
I encourage the translators of my books to take as much license as they feel that they need. This is not quite… — Michael Cunningham Copy Share Image
“I’m sure there are people who are content to run errands and report for work on time and wait, with an enlivening… — Michael Cunningham Copy Share Image
“Mizzy has wandered into the garden. Carole looks contemplatively at him, says, "Lovely boy." "My wife's insanely younger brother. He's one of those kids… — Michael Cunningham Copy Share
“Zoe loved Trancas's mother. She respected her exhausted and ironic hope for rebirth.” — Michael Cunningham Copy Share
The lives great artists live and the books they write are two very different things. — Michael Cunningham Copy Share
“How often since then has she wondered what might have happened if she'd tried to remain with him; if she’d returned Richard's kiss on… — Michael Cunningham Copy Share
“...a full week of their mother's quiet fury over the fun they don't seem to be having and their father's dogged attempts to provide… — Michael Cunningham Copy Share
Oh, all you immigrants and visionaries, what do you hope to find here, who do you hope to become? — Michael Cunningham Copy Share
“She wants to have baked a cake that banishes sorrow, even if only for a little while.” — Michael Cunningham Copy Share
“And yet, it gives Peter nothing. Not now. Not today. Not when he needs... more. More than this well-executed idea. More than the shark… — Michael Cunningham Copy Share
He insists on a version of you that is funnier, stranger, more eccentric and prfound thatn you suspect yourself to be--capable of doing more… — Michael Cunningham Copy Share
The worst are full of passionate intensity while the best lack all conviction. — Michael Cunningham Copy Share
“And here he is, letting the massive steel street door click shut behind him, standing at the top of the three iron steps that… — Michael Cunningham Copy Share
It's the world, you live in it, even if some boy has made a fool of you. — Michael Cunningham Copy Share
“She's had a long life. Now she's going to the Lord." "Frankly it creeps me out a little when you say things like that,"… — Michael Cunningham Copy Share
Any other vexations to report?" he asks. "I love the word 'vexations.'" "It's the 'x.' Nice to jump off a 'v' and bite into… — Michael Cunningham Copy Share
Dead, we are revealed in our true dimensions, and they are surprisingly modest. — Michael Cunningham Copy Share
