If I'm doing something I know I can pull off, then that's not the book I should be writing. — Jennifer Egan Copy Share Image
As a reader and a writer, I'm happiest when apparently mutually exclusive states can somehow coexist. — Jennifer Egan Copy Share Image
If you can write any way and it's working out, just bow down in gratitude. — Jennifer Egan Copy Share Image
“I haven’t had writer’s block. I think it’s because my process involves writing very badly.” — Jennifer Egan Copy Share Image
One area I have a huge amount of trouble in is writing about myself. I get a heavy, almost depressed feeling. — Jennifer Egan Copy Share Image
I write to escape from my life. Writing about men separates 'me' from my work in a way that I find comforting. — Jennifer Egan Copy Share Image
I think playing the glamour card is a disastrous error as a literary writer. — Jennifer Egan Copy Share Image
I spend so long writing each of my novels that by the time I'm done with one, I'm ready to discover a… — Jennifer Egan Copy Share Image
To some degree, we're all thinking about the same things. It's the zeitgeist. The trick, in a way, as a writer, is… — Jennifer Egan Copy Share Image
In the case of 'Goon Squad,' which sold slowly for a long time despite the good reviews, those 'best of 2010' lists… — Jennifer Egan Copy Share Image
I should say, I don't write about myself or my life. So for me, in fiction, it's always been about what I… — Jennifer Egan Copy Share Image
There are a lot of writers who find a groove and spend a career mining that vein. I seem to be exactly… — Jennifer Egan Copy Share Image
I knew as far back as 2001 that I would write a book called 'A Visit From the Goon Squad,' though I… — Jennifer Egan Copy Share Image
When I'm not writing, I feel an awareness that something's missing. If I go a long time, it becomes worse. I become… — Jennifer Egan Copy Share Image
Goon Squad' took about three years to write and that's the short end. My second novel, 'Look at Me,' took six years. — Jennifer Egan Copy Share Image
I haven’t had trouble with writer’s block. I think it’s because my process involves writing very badly. My first drafts are filled… — Jennifer Egan Copy Share Image
If you read novels of the 19th century, they're pretty experimental. They take lots of chances; they seem to break a lot… — Jennifer Egan Copy Share Image
In a way, I started 'Goon Squad' not even realizing I was writing a book. I thought I was just writing a… — Jennifer Egan Copy Share Image
I haven't had trouble with writer's block. I think it's because my process involves writing very badly. My first drafts are filled… — Jennifer Egan Copy Share Image
The average person might articulate them differently, but we all think about interpersonal relationships in one way or another. Writers just express… — Jennifer Egan Copy Share Image
I'm not a wildly gifted person; I don't play an instrument or speak another language or have great accomplishments in another field,… — Jennifer Egan Copy Share Image
I write totally spontaneously. I actually write fiction by hand - that always seems to startle people. I think the reason I… — Jennifer Egan Copy Share Image
I'm not reading what I write when I wrote. It's an unconscious outpouring that's a mess, and it's many, many steps away… — Jennifer Egan Copy Share Image
I write my first draft by hand, at least for fiction. For non-fiction, I write happily on a computer, but for fiction… — Jennifer Egan Copy Share Image
I number my drafts, and by the time a book is done, I'll have 75 or 80 drafts of some sections. — Jennifer Egan Copy Share Image
I always feel very afraid as I work on books. It's just so hard to write a decent book! — Jennifer Egan Copy Share Image
I am at my worst trying to write about things that overlap with my life. — Jennifer Egan Copy Share Image
I would go so far as to say that I mostly write terrible things. I mean, my first drafts are so appalling. — Jennifer Egan Copy Share Image
I guess my comfort zone as a writer is diametrically opposed to my comfort zone as a human being. — Jennifer Egan Copy Share Image
It's the feeling of being lifted out of my life into another world that is the thrill of writing fiction. — Jennifer Egan Copy Share Image
The bottom line is that I like my first drafts to be blind, unconscious, messy efforts; that's what gets me the best… — Jennifer Egan Copy Share Image
My first attempt at writing a novel was horrible. I had to throw it away. But I stuck with the idea, which… — Jennifer Egan Copy Share Image
Be willing and unafraid to write badly, because often the bad stuff...forms a base on which to build something better. — Jennifer Egan Copy Share Image
It's not that I sit down and write great stuff without thinking, not at all. Most of it is terrible. But the… — Jennifer Egan Copy Share Image
It's our job as fiction writers to provide a delight that nothing else can - to such a degree that people have… — Jennifer Egan Copy Share Image
I love working with genre. And to me, the Victorian novel is the flourishing ancestor I'm always trying to access when I… — Jennifer Egan Copy Share Image
“You can only write regularly if you're willing to write badly. You can't write regularly and well. One should accept bad writing… — Jennifer Egan Copy Share Image
Between books, I have to throw out everything I did before, because the tools I've used to write the previous book will… — Jennifer Egan Copy Share Image
“Behind the desk was nothing but view-the whole city flung out in front of us the way street vendors fling out their towels packed… — Jennifer Egan Copy Share
I just think that, for my particular personality, feeling slightly invisible is always a help. — Jennifer Egan Copy Share
Between books, I have to throw out everything I did before, because the tools I've used to write the previous book will not only… — Jennifer Egan Copy Share
As a reader and a writer, I'm happiest when apparently mutually exclusive states can somehow coexist. — Jennifer Egan Copy Share
I teach intermittently, and while I enjoy it, I don't find that it's a calling for me. — Jennifer Egan Copy Share
Like all failed experiments, that one taught me something I didn’t expect: one key ingredient of so-called experience is the delusional faith that it… — Jennifer Egan Copy Share
“Thousands of solar panels lift and tilt at the same time, in the same way. I clutch at Dad's arm: "Why are they doing… — Jennifer Egan Copy Share
It was the hat. He looked sweet in the hat. How could a man in a fuzzy blue hat have used human bones to… — Jennifer Egan Copy Share
I was a stepchild in two different families. The hardest thing about being a stepchild is you know that in some way everything would… — Jennifer Egan Copy Share
“The seconds pass. I know what’s going on because it’s the same thing that always happens: give me something nice, something I love or… — Jennifer Egan Copy Share
I had this idea that I could hire myself out as a person to go on archeological digs and dig, without any training! I… — Jennifer Egan Copy Share
At night, the house thick with sleep, she would peer out her bedroom window at the trees and sky and feel the presence of… — Jennifer Egan Copy Share
I number my drafts, and by the time a book is done, I'll have 75 or 80 drafts of some sections. — Jennifer Egan Copy Share
Read at the level at which you want to write. Reading is the nourishment that feeds the kind of writing you want to do. — Jennifer Egan Copy Share
I was a stepchild in two different families. The hardest thing about being a stepchild is you know that in some way everything would… — Jennifer Egan Copy Share
